The Markenmore Mystery

At Markenmore Court, a fading country house shadowed by family decline, hidden wealth, and old resentments, J. S. Fletcher opens a tense detective story in which every locked door seems to guard a secret. On a twilight evening in 1912, the meticulous butler Braxfield discovers that the past has come back to the manor in two unsettling forms: John Harborough, long absent from the household, and Guy Markenmore, the vanished elder son who returns by stealth after seven years away. Their reappearance stirs up questions about the ailing Sir Anthony, the family's financial ruin, the threatened estate, and the fate of Guy himself. Valencia and Harry Markenmore, left to manage the crumbling property, sense that Harborough knows more than he says, while Guy's polished detachment and business-made fortune suggest motives as hidden as his movements. As Detective Blick probes a murder inquiry, groom William Pegge adds a chilling clue: he saw Baron von Eckhardstein moving secretly between the Dower House and the gardens in the dead of night, hinting at clandestine access, buried connections, and a truth more dangerous than anyone suspects.