The Wife Without the Garden

‘It is well within the prospect of a murderer to murder again, and yet police and public alike are taken by surprise as another body turns up at the corner of a street.’

Kattonbury. A cold December freezes further the ties of the L’Astair brothers. The younger reigning Duke, the older of an inheritance dispute, thrown to his career; a prominent criminal lawyer. Both of loving wives and intelligent daughters. But wealth seldom stays quiet. The L’Astair Annual Michaelmas Social sees opening at 4pm, and closing at 7. The Duchess is found dead in her room at 6.

Royce Helmer—Detective-Horus as the papers call her—is set on the chase for the killer by the Duke himself. The scent of foul play wafts off her most beloved. The case at several layers beyond those investigating.

Battling the spirits of the victims and her own horrors, through suspicion of those closest to her and enemies she cannot see, will the detective triumph past her own securities to find the killer? Or will her personal involvement win over her sense of justice? Are some crimes better left unsaid? For all crime stems from one or another species of justice.