Fatal Inheritance
By (Author) Catherine Shaw
Allison & Busby
Allison & Busby
20th December 2013
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
813.6
352
Width 129mm, Height 198mm
It is New Year's day, 1900, when the brilliant violinist Sebastian Cavendish is found dead. The last few days of his life are a mystery, but in the final hours of 1899 he wrote a cryptic suicide note mentioning a ...cursed inheritance..., took poison, and died in agony.Yet his friends and relations are utterly perplexed. The man they knew and grieve for was vivacious, exuberant and extroverted. His fellow musicians speak of his passion, his drive, and his love of living. The socialites he met, all of whom lavished him with praise, saw only a dazzling future ahead of him. So why, his friends and loved ones ask, would he change his plans at such short notice, disappear for days on end, and take his own lifeVanessa Weatherburn, an established detective and ex-tutor to one of Sebastian's friends, is engaged to investigate the dead man's final movements. It is a journey which will reveal to her the science of genetics, the history of Sebastian's equally brilliant grandfather and the long-kept secrets of the Cavendish family.
'Seasoned with wit and intelligence and made out of unusual and interesting ingredients ... a clever concoction' Literary Review 'A well-written and intelligent book ... This is certainly a good read' Historical Novels Review
Catherine Shaw is a pseudonym. She is a mathematician and academic and writer of murder mysteries. She lives in Paris, France.