Everett Carr Mystery

It is the mid-1930s in the English village of Vale Thorn. Sir James Ravenwood, a collector of macabre artefacts and an expert in the occult, is hosting a weekend party at his country house, Warlock's Gate, in order to celebrate the unveiling of his latest treasure-a ceremonial dagger said once to have slain a vampire. Amongst the invited guests is a rival collector, Sebastian Lynch, a man who has been receiving strange threats against his life, in the shape of wooden dolls with skulls for faces and twine nooses tied around their necks. On the night before the unveiling of the dagger, Lynch is stabbed to death in Ravenwood's private museum at Warlock's Gate, despite the fact that the doors and the windows to the museum are all locked, the only keys have been stolen, and the house itself has been secured. It seems to be an impossible crime. One of the guests, Everett Carr, a retired judge haunted by a tragic past, has reason to suspect the truth, however, and he instigates his own investigation. When the killer strikes for a second time, Carr finds himself in a race against time to prove his theories and unmask the killer. His investigation will peel away the respectable veneer not only of the Ravenwood family but also of the houseguests, uncovering revenge, blackmail, illegitimacy, and personal tragedy, before the final secrets of Warlock's Gate are exposed.

The Icarus Club is one of London's most prestigious gentlemen's clubs, counting amongst its members the very elite of society. Beneath the veneer of respectability, however, there swarm dark secrets, tense rivalries, blackmail, and murder. Jacob Erskine is a man who can count many of the Icarus Club's members as his enemy. When Erskine is found shot dead in one of the reading rooms of the club, the police are baffled. Why was the dead man's body covered in bank notes? What is the relevance of a single feather found beside the body? Who had the opportunity to steal the revolver used to commit the crime from a locked desk? And who amongst them is a liar and a thief? Everett Carr, retired judge and reluctant amateur sleuth, thinks he knows the answers to some of those questions. But as Carr digs deeper into the mystery of Jacob Erskine's death, it becomes apparent that more than one person had a motive for wishing him dead. When a second murder occurs, Carr comes to realise that the killer is someone far more deadly than even he had anticipated. If Carr is to solve the murder, not only will he have to brave the very real dangers of the night, but he will also have to delve into the dark secrets of the past...

When William Lorrimer is found dead from a gunshot wound to the head, the inquest has no difficulty in returning a verdict of suicide. Lorrimer had lost the love of his life to another man, and he had written a letter to his former lover explaining why and how she had ruined his life. There could be no doubt that he killed himself. But when a mysterious stranger arrives in the village of Little Marsham, suspicions of murder soon begin to circulate. The woman, who has a close link to Lorrimer, is convinced that the verdict of the inquest was wrong. Lorrimer, she says, was murdered. At first, her claims are not taken seriously, but when she is found dead in the local churchyard, there can be no doubt that this time it is murder. Everett Carr has reasons of his own to be in Little Marsham, and when he hears of this brutal murder, he suspects that the truth of William Lorrimer's death has not yet come to light. As Carr begins to ask questions, it becomes clear that more than one person had a reason to murder Lorrimer, and that there is more than one secret in the village which someone might be prepared to kill to keep hidden. As his investigation brings him into personal danger, Carr finds himself in a desperate race to find a killer who may strike again at any moment...