The Murder of Viscount Montcrief
A 1920s Cotswolds Mystery
Spring 1923, The Cotswolds
Viscount Edmund Montcrief has returned to Montcrief Hall after fifteen years abroad, bringing with him a priceless collection of Egyptian artifacts and a mysterious obsession with ancient codes. To celebrate his homecoming, he invites a select group of guests to his ancestral estate for a weekend of antiquarian pursuits: a renowned Egyptologist, a code-breaker from the War Office, a celebrated archaeologist, his estranged younger brother and his wife, his young ward, and a Cambridge historian.
On Saturday evening, the Viscount unveils his prized acquisition—a recently discovered papyrus he claims contains the location of an undiscovered pharaoh's tomb. He announces he will reveal the translation at midnight. But when the clock strikes twelve, the guests find the Viscount dead in his locked study, the papyrus burned to ashes in the fireplace, and a cryptic message written in hieroglyphs on his desk blotter.
Enter Captain James Hartley, a former intelligence officer turned reluctant country squire, who's visiting his aunt in the neighboring village. When the local constabulary proves overwhelmed, Hartley is drawn into the investigation. He must decipher not only the hieroglyphic message but also the web of secrets, jealousies, and hidden motives among the guests—each of whom had reason to want the Viscount dead and the papyrus destroyed.
As Hartley unravels the mystery, he discovers the papyrus was a forgery, the Viscount was blackmailing several guests, and the true treasure isn't Egyptian at all—it's something far more dangerous hidden within Montcrief Hall itself.
