"Robert Barnard, the internationally acclaimed Diamond Dagger-winning crime writer, dissects family bonds at their best and worst in this stunning novel of suspense. What an honor--to become trustee of an English stately home museum. Yorkshire Detective Inspector Charlie Peace's wife, Felicity, is initially thrilled when she's asked to join the board that oversees Walbrook Manor, an eighteenth-century mansion that's now part of a charitable trust....

This unique murder mystery is both a penetrating analysis of a decaying social class and a deeply moving personal story of two men: Peter Proctor, recently retired as a senior British cabinet minister, and Timothy Wycliffe, a young aristocrat who was bludgeoned to death more than thirty years ago. Once close friends, their relationship had gradually faded; even Wycliffe's shocking murder caused relatively little impact on his friends and the national...