Blackstone Fell

Martin Edwards

Hardcover

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Rachel Savernake investigates bizarre crimes and a baffling locked-room puzzle in this Gothic mystery from the winner of the Diamond Dagger.

Autumn 1930. As the nights draw in, Jacob Flint attends a séance. He's intending to investigate fraudulent mediums - but then a ghost appears with a message from the spirit world: 'Felix Reilly murdered me.'

The same evening, Rachel Savernake takes on an intriguing case. Ulick Quayle was investigating the three-hundred-year old story of The Witch of Blackstone, burned at the stake for her supposed murder of the local Lord. Now Ulick's body has been found on bleak and eerie Blackstone Moor, his corpse ripped to pieces.

Some of the villagers believe the Witch of Blackstone has returned from the dead. The police suspect an escaped inmate from a nearby asylum. But Ulick's sister is convinced that the culprit is someone much closer to home - and she's employed Rachel to investigate.

As Rachel starts to unravel a bizarre crime with its roots in the deep past, her friend and sometime lover Jacob is on a similar trail of murder and witchcraft. And both are leading to the ancient stone castle of Blackstone Tower...

Blacktone Fell explores the shadowy borderlands between spiritual and scientific; between sanity and madness; between sin and virtue. This is a mystery involving clerics, historians, scientists... and people who believe that Blackstone is a place controlled by dark and demonic forces, which might just take human form.

Book Details

Publisher: Head of Zeus -- An Aries Book
Publish Date: Dec 1st, 2022
Pages: 448
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00lb
EAN: 9781801100205
Categories: • Mystery & Detective - Historical

About the Author

Martin Edwards has won the Edgar, Agatha, H.R.F. Keating, Macavity, Poirot and Dagger awards as well as being shortlisted for the Theakston's Prize. He is President of the Detection Club, Chair of the Crime Writer's Association and consultant to the British Library's bestselling crime classics series. In 2020 he was awarded the Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to crime fiction. The first two titles in the Rachel Savernake series are Gallows Court and Mortmain Hall.

Praise for this book

Praise for Mortmain Hall:

"[A] triumph, from its tantalizing opening, in which an unnamed dying man begins to explain an unspecified perfect crime, through its scrupulously fair final reveal...impressively channels Agatha Christie." - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Praise for Gallows Court:

"Highly atmospheric, spine-tingling fun...the way that Edwards keeps deepening the creepiness of this mystery until the very end is utterly stunning." - Booklist, STARRED Review

"Martin Edwards crafts vivid descriptions of both character and setting that embed the reader into the scene in a way few writers can achieve." - New York Journal of Books

"Superb―a pitch-perfect blend of Golden Age charm and sinister modern suspense, with a main character to die for. This is the book Edwards was born to write." - Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"Martin Edwards's GALLOWS COURT seems awfully bloodthirsty for a traditionally designed mystery set in foggy old London in 1930... Fans of clean-cut heroes will be rooting for Jacob, although some of us would rather see devilish Rachel clean his clock. Either that or commit a clever, more refined murder of her own." - The New York Times Book Review

"Exceptional series launch from Edgar-winner Edwards...The labyrinthine plot is one of Edwards's best, and he does a masterly job of maintaining suspense, besides getting the reader to invest in the fate of the two main characters. Fans of Edgar Wallace's classic Four Just Men won't want to miss this one." - Publishers Weekly - STARRED review