It is New Year's day, 1900, when the brilliant violinist Sebastian Cavendish is found dead. The last few days of his life are a mystery, but in the final hours of 1899 he wrote a cryptic suicide note mentioning a "cursed inheritance", took poison, and died in agony.
Yet his friends and relations are utterly perplexed. The man they knew and grieve for was vivacious, exuberant and extroverted. His fellow musicians speak of his passion, his drive, and his love of living. The socialites he met, all of whom lavished him with praise, saw only a dazzling future ahead of him. So why, his friends and loved ones ask, would he change his plans at such short notice, disappear for days on end, and take his own life?
Vanessa Weatherburn, an established detective and ex-tutor to one of Sebastian's friends, is engaged to investigate the dead man's final movements. It is a journey which will reveal to her the science of genetics, the history of Sebastian's equally brilliant grandfather and the long-kept secrets of the Cavendish family.
- ISBN10 0749014857
- ISBN13 9780749014858
- Publish Date 20 December 2013 (first published 24 January 2013)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 11 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Allison & Busby
- Format Paperback
- Pages 352
- Language English