The grandchildren of Sir Richard March gather together in London to drive down to Swanswater Manor for an annual remembrance of Serafita, Sir Richard’s first wife. They are driving down with Philip and his wife Ellen, but before others arrive, his cousin Claire forces an admission from Philip about his relationship with her. Philip tells his wife he wants to be with Claire. Ellen seems to take this lightly, but she is upset.
It’s clear that the young people behave brashly with each other and tease their grandfather. He, however, becomes offended and vows to disinherit them all and make his second wife, Bella, his sole heir. Peta is currently the principal heir, but Philip, Claire, and Edward are due to get some money.
That afternoon, Sir Richard insists on spending the night by himself in a lodge after summoning Stephen Garde, his solicitor, to change his will. During the afternoon, Bella and Peta go there to try to convince him to sleep in the house or accept company, and Ellen takes him his green pen. In the evening the gardener rakes and sands all the paths around the lodge.
In the morning, Claire goes to the lodge and finds Sir Richard dead. Her tracks are clearly the only ones on the path. The family assumes he died from his heart condition, but he turns out to be poisoned with his medication.
The family tries not to think the murderer may be 17-year-old Edward, whose mother’s fascination with psychiatry has lead him to fancy himself with problems and who allegedly goes into fugue states. Although Edward knows that some of his problems are feigned, sometimes he’s not sure what he has done.
Inspector Cockrill is not sure who committed the murder, but the inquest finds a verdict of murder against Ellen because of a silly theory that she could have injected the poison using his pen, but also because she is the only “foreigner.”
Aside from the ridiculous belief that looking up suddenly could bring on a fugue state, which I assume was a belief of the time, I liked the characterization in this novel, which is accomplished mostly by dialogue. I thought that one aspect of the solution was unlikely and that the motive was thin. However, generally I enjoyed this one.
I received this book from the publishers in exchange for a free and fair review.
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