A DECEPTIVE COMPOSITION

A family of inquiry agents receives a plea for help from estranged relatives.

Although the birth of his granddaughter has improved Lord Gage’s rocky relationship with his son, Sebastian, and daughter-in-law, Kiera, a letter from his aunt Amelia revives unpleasant memories of more family trauma involving Gage’s youth in Cornwall and the Roscarrock relatives he remembers as rogues and smugglers. Drafted at age 11 into their activities, he was arrested and his best friend killed. His grandfather bought him a commission in the navy to keep him out of prison, setting him on the path to wealth and respectability. Now Aunt Amelia claims that Gage’s uncle Branok was murdered and wants him to investigate. He’s loath to do so until Sebastian and Kiera convince him—but when they all arrive at Roscarrock House, their greeting is not entirely warm. Branok reportedly fell from a cliff, but Kiera’s observations at the site and talk with the local doctor leave her so unsatisfied that she wonders how the coroner could have ruled the death an accident. Branok’s grandson, Meryasek, who’s inherited the estate, has a reputation as a lazy womanizer. Then Lord Gage meets an old friend who claims she saw Branok after he was supposed to have died. However wholeheartedly they deny it, the local families are still involved in smuggling, and Lord Gage doubts their word about everything. The real reason they asked Gage to investigate comes as a shock that puts his whole family in a precarious position.

A bit of history and a stunning Cornish backdrop add value to a complex mystery.