The Shadowcutter

Giles Vernon and his wife  are on holiday in Stanegate.  They have invited Felix Carswell to join them.  Vernon intends on taking some sword lessons while there.  He meets a Spanish opponent at the lessons.  After a bout, the Spaniard collapses, coughing up blood.  Carswell rushes to his aid and quickly diagnoses phthisis.

Getting the man back to his flat, Carswell discovers that his back is crisscrossed with scars and some open wounds.  Looking in a drawer, Vernon comes across a whip.  Later in the day, Vernon receives a note from Lord Rothborough asking for his help.  When he turns up at the estate, he finds Rothborough and his eldest daughter with the body of a young woman, which had been pulled from a pond on the estate.

Vernon gets Carswell to examine the body.  He discovers a bit of shell in the back of her head.  Vernon then takes him to the grotto nearby the pond.  There they find blood on the wall at the height of the woman’s head.  They have a murder on their hands.  However, the local coroner is not going to allow that to stand.  In his mind it is simply the death of a maid - a non-entity.

How can Vernon and Carswell manage to find the killer with the local coroner being nonchalant about the death?  And what of the robbery that Lord Rothborough tells them of at his estate?  

Author Harriet Smart’s murder mystery is complex, and tied in with resolving a robbery at the same time has both Vernon and Carswell tied in knots.  They experience both tragedy and relief as this thriller progresses.  Smart also throws in a bit of international intrigue to the mix.  A good mystery for the reader to enjoy.