The book begins in 1953 with Hugo Hawksworth and his 13 year-old sister arriving at Selchester Castle, the home of the Selchesters for generations. Hugo is invited to stay at the Castle by Sir Bernard his new boss.
Sir Bernard is became the trustee of the Selchester's estate after Lord Selchester disappeared in 1947 in a snow storm, and his son is killed in action not long afterwards.
Sir Bernard is became the trustee of the Selchester's estate after Lord Selchester disappeared in 1947 in a snow storm, and his son is killed in action not long afterwards.
The Castle is inhabited by Lord Selchester's niece, Freya Wryton, and a live in cook/housekeeper, Mrs Partridge.
Hugo works up at the Hall a supposedly Office for Statistics run by the war office, but all the locals know its more then that and often comment on this knowledge. Hugo is looking at individuals and their service to the country weeding out those who have suspected Communist sympathies. This is set in the time not long after the Cambridge Spy Ring affair.
He finds the job slow but interesting, but in the midst of his job, the skeleton of Lord Selchester turns up under the chapel floor, much to the annoyance of the Lord's daughter and heir, who has been counting down the years to when she can register him dead and sell the Castle and its land to a hotel chain.
The Lord had many secrets, and was a renowned blackmailer and generally a not nice person. So when he disappeared not many people were upset and now few are upset by his demise.
Hugo finds himself involved with tracking the murderer down and opens up a hornets nest.
The characters are of the era, and this can jar with modern readers, especially the doffing of caps to the upper classes. The characters are intertwined beautiful and they play their parts well, so it is hard to work out who the murderer is.
Yet they seemed dream like to me and not fully formed, but this only added to the atmosphere of an era which has been shaped for me by Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, old movies and plays.
Although the plot was intriguing I did feel at times I wanted more depth to the character's thoughts and behaviour, and the ending I felt was contrived and was arrived at with very little detective work as such.
Yet saying that I really enjoyed this book and read the next ones in the series.
