Head of Zeus

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Mortmain Hall

by Martin Edwards

Rachel Savernake, 2

A superb Golden Age mystery packed with twists, from the winner of the Diamond Dagger 2020

ENGLAND, 1930. Grieving widows are a familiar sight on London's Necropolis Railway. So when an elegant young woman in a black veil boards the funeral train, nobody guesses her true purpose.

But Rachel Savernake is not one of the mourners. She hopes to save a life – the life of a man who is supposed to be cold in the grave. But then a suspicious death on the railway track spurs her on to investigate a sequence of baffling mysteries: a death in a blazing car; a killing in a seaside bungalow; a tragic drowning in a frozen lake. Rachel believes that the cases are connected – but what possible link can there be?

Rich, ruthless and obsessed with her own dark notions of justice, she will not rest until she has discovered the truth. To find the answers to her questions she joins a house party on the eerie and remote North Yorkshire coast at Mortmain Hall, an estate. Her inquiries are helped – and sometimes hindered – by the impetuous young journalist Jacob Flint and an eccentric female criminologist with a dangerous fascination with perfect crimes...

Mortmain Hall is at once a gripping thriller and a classic whodunit puzzle: a Golden Age Gothic mystery, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.

Reviews for Mortmain Hall:

'Maintains a cracking pace... Elegant period escapism' Mail on Sunday

'A classic whodunit' Daily Express

'Rachel Savernake is on spectacular form... A Miss Marple for the 21st century' Daily Mail

'Martin Edwards is a guru of the Golden Age... His work pays homage to the intricate puppetry and byzantine plotting popular in the period' The Times

Reviews for Martin Edwards:

'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

'Edwards has managed, brilliantly, to combined a Golden Age setting with a pace that is bang up-to-date. A great sense of the era observed through a cut-throat-sharp eye, every page dripping with brilliant period authenticity' Peter James

'A ripping tale of retribution and rough justice, set against a finely realised 1930s London. It reads as if Ruth Rendell were channelling Edgar Wallace' Mick Herron

'Gripping' Peter Robinson

Head of Zeus * Crime Fiction

02 Apr 2020 * 416pp * £14.99 * 9781788546140

REVIEWS

'A classic whodunnit'

Daily Express

A classic whodunnit with a dark gothic twist... An absorbing and intricately plotted golden age murder mystery'

CultureFly

'Any novel opening in 1930's England on the London Necropolis Company's private station has got to be a winner, especially in the hands of Martin Edwards, connoisseur extraordinaire of the Golden Age of crime fiction'

Shots Magazine

'Martin Edwards is a guru of the interwar Golden Age of crime novels, and his work pays homage to the intricate puppetry and byzantine plotting popular in the period'

The Times

The multi-award-winning Edwards launched a distinctly sparky female detective, Rachel Savernake, daughter of an Old Bailey judge, in his last book and here she reappears in even more spectacular form... This is an old-fashioned mystery with a string of very modern twists, making Ms Savernake a Miss Marple for the 21st century'

Daily Mail

'Edwards maintains a cracking pace and only the smartest readers will anticipate the denouement. As elegant period escapism, it ticks all the boxes'

Mail on Sunday

'Edwards has created some marvellous characters in these books which carry a real flavour of the Golden Age of crime fiction. There's even the traditional list of clues at the end so puzzled readers can see how many they missed'

Morning Star

What Martin Edwards doesn't know about Golden Age crime fiction would probably fit on the back of a first-class stamp... With meticulous and detailed research, scratch-them-and-they-bleed characterisation and locations you can smell and touch, Edwards has added his own unique style to a format beloved of Golden Age fans. The result quite different from the contemporary Lake District series his readers may find more familiar, but nevertheless a masterclass'

Mystery People

'From the winner of this year's Diamond Dagger award, Mortmain Hall is a gripping whodunnit set in the '30s'

My Weekly.

Winner of this year's Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger, Martin Edwards is the author of many crime novels, an expert in the genre. His latest series, set in the Golden Age, is an ingenious modern 'take' on the classic whodunnit... A whole page would not give me space to explain the intricacy of this story. A tangle of satisfying clues, and a pleasing denouement in the classic Christie manner'

The Tablet.

'This wonderful evocation of a bygone age would make Mortmain Hall worth reading on its own but when you combine it with a cracking story and original and engaging characters, you've got a real winner'

TripFiction

ALSO IN THE SERIES

Author

Martin Edwards

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, a former Chair of the Crime Writers' 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. Follow Martin on Twitter and Instagram (@medwardsbooks) and Facebook (@MartinEdwardsBooks).

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