Lucy Forster's marriage to wealthy young landowner Robert Davenant makes her mistress of Lowthorpe Hall, a gracious country seat in a remote Warwickshire valley. But she soon learns that Lowthorpe harbours a sinister and dangerous secret. Fearful rumours circulate, including the belief that something tangibly evil lurks in a sealed-off grotto beneath the house. Then Silas Markham, the Davenant's clever but devious librarian, is shot dead. And soon afterwards, Lucy makes an appalling discovery that threatens the family with total ruin. Arson and civil riot threaten the peace as Victorian rural detectives Inspector Jackson and Sergeant Bottomley take on the case. As they struggle to restore order and solve Markham's murder, the horrifying truth of the Lowthorpe grotto must finally come to light.
- ISBN10 0709078625
- ISBN13 9780709078623
- Publish Date 29 July 2005
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 April 2008
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher The Crowood Press Ltd
- Imprint Robert Hale Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 224
- Language English