A Herbert Reardon Mystery
1 primary work • 4 total works
Book 4
DI Herbert Reardon is drawn into a world of secrets and lies when a body is discovered at a girls' boarding school.
1930. When a body is discovered on the premises of the newly-established Maxstead Court School for Girls, Detective Inspector Herbert Reardon is called in to investigate. His wife Ellen having just accepted a job as French teacher, Reardon is alarmed to find the school a hotbed of scandalous secrets, suppressed passions, petty jealousies and wanton schoolgirl cruelty. As he pursues his enquiries, it becomes clear that the dead woman was not who - or what - she claimed to be. Who was she really - and why is Reardon convinced that more than one member of staff is not telling him the whole truth?
Then a pupil goes missing - and the case takes a disturbing new twist .
Introducing Detective Inspector Herbert Reardon in a new mystery series, set in the Downton Abbey period.
November, 1928. Family and friends have gathered at the Shropshire country home of Penrose Llewellyn to celebrate the retired wealthy businessman's 60th birthday. But the morning after what should have been a convivial supper party, their host is found dead in his bed - and the circumstances look decidedly suspicious.
As he questions the victim's nearest and dearest, DI Reardon discovers there are several longstanding secrets lurking amongst the Llewellyn clan - and he is convinced that not everyone is telling him the truth, or at least not the whole truth. Those who stand to inherit most from Pen Llewellyn's will - if it can be found - are under the strongest suspicion, and among them hides a ruthless killer.
Introducing Detective Inspector Herbert Reardon in a new mystery series, set in the Downton Abbey period.
November, 1928. Family and friends have gathered at the Shropshire country home of Penrose Llewellyn to celebrate the retired wealthy businessman's 60th birthday. But the morning after what should have been a convivial supper party, their host is found dead in his bed - and the circumstances look decidedly suspicious.
As he questions the victim's nearest and dearest, DI Reardon discovers there are several longstanding secrets lurking amongst the Llewellyn clan - and he is convinced that not everyone is telling him the truth, or at least not the whole truth. Those who stand to inherit most from Pen Llewellyn's will - if it can be found - are under the strongest suspicion, and among them hides a ruthless killer.
DI Herbert Reardon investigates the curious case of a man seemingly returned from the dead, in the latest 1930s-set historical mystery from Marjorie Eccles.
February, 1933. When their eldest brother Paul walks into their hallway, fourteen years after he was presumed dead, successful property developers Thea and Teddy Millar are beset with questions. Where has he been? Why has he never written to let them know he was alive? And most of important of all: what happened to Paul, after the end of the Great War, to make him abandon everything and everyone he ever knew?
When Paul's body is found floating in the canal two weeks later, Detective Inspector Herbert Reardon feels sure the murder is connected to his new life in London. For who would want to kill a man who's been thought dead for over a decade?
But Reardon knows the past can cast long shadows, and as he investigates, he finds a knot of dark secrets and old grudges that someone is determined he'll never untangle . . .
This atmospheric historical mystery brings the interwar period of the 1930s to vivid, compelling life, and is a great choice for fans of traditional mysteries with characters who feel real and sympathetic.