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A gothic and atmospheric slant on the traditions of the classic country house murder mystery. The labyrinthine secrets of Mortmain Hall might bring down the British establishment.
About the author
Martin Edwards has won the Edgar, Agatha, H.R.F. Keating, Macavity, Poirot and Dagger awards as well as being shortlisted for the Theakston's Prize. He is President of the Detection Club, a former Chair of the Crime Writers' Association and consultant to the British Library's bestselling crime classics series.
In 2020 he was awarded the Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to crime fiction. Follow Martin on Twitter and Instagram (@medwardsbooks) and Facebook (@MartinEdwardsBooks).
Summary
A superb Golden Age mystery packed with twists, from the winner of the Diamond Dagger 2020
ENGLAND, 1930. Grieving widows are a familiar sight on London's Necropolis Railway. So when an elegant young woman in a black veil boards the funeral train, nobody guesses her true purpose.
But
Rachel Savernake is not one of the mourners. She hopes to save a life – the life of a man who is supposed to be cold in the grave. But then a suspicious death on the railway track spurs her on to investigate a sequence of baffling mysteries: a death in a blazing car; a killing in a seaside bungalow; a tragic drowning in a frozen lake. Rachel believes that the cases are connected – but what possible link can there be?
Rich, ruthless and obsessed with her own dark notions of justice, she will not rest until she has discovered the truth. To find the answers to her questions she joins a house party on the eerie and remote North Yorkshire coast at Mortmain Hall, an estate. Her inquiries are helped – and sometimes hindered – by the impetuous young journalist Jacob Flint and an eccentric female criminologist with a dangerous fascination with perfect crimes...
Mortmain Hall is at once a gripping thriller and a classic whodunit puzzle: a Golden Age Gothic mystery, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.
Reviews for Mortmain Hall:
'Maintains a cracking pace ... Elegant period escapism'
Mail on Sunday'A classic whodunit'
Daily Express'Rachel Savernake is on spectacular form ... A Miss Marple for the 21st century'
Daily Mail'Martin Edwards is a guru of the Golden Age ... His work pays homage to the intricate puppetry and byzantine plotting popular in the period'
The TimesReviews for Martin Edwards:
'Superb – a pitch-perfect blend of Golden Age charm and sinister modern suspense, with a main character to die for. This is the book Edwards was born to write'
Lee Child'Edwards has managed, brilliantly, to combined a Golden Age setting with a pace that is bang up-to-date. A great sense of the era observed through a cut-throat-sharp eye, every page dripping with brilliant period authenticity'
Peter James'A ripping tale of retribution and rough justice, set against a finely realised 1930s London. It reads as if Ruth Rendell were channelling Edgar Wallace'
Mick Herron'Gripping'
Peter Robinson
Additional text
'This wonderful evocation of a bygone age would make Mortmain Hall worth reading on its own but when you combine it with a cracking story and original and engaging characters, you've got a real winner' TripFiction.
