Ashworth Hall

When a group of powerful Irish Protestants and Catholics gather at a country house to discuss Irish home rule, contention is to be expected. But when the meeting’s moderator, government bigwig Ainsley Greville, is found murdered in his bath, negotiations seem doomed. Unless Superintendent Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, can root out the truth, simmering hatreds and passions may again explode in murder.

Thomas and Charlotte Pitt return in the latest brilliantly rendered novel of manners, mores, and murder in Victorian England. A group of Irish political figures, Protestants and Catholics, gathers at Ashworth Hall in hopes of finally resolving the volatile issue of home rule for Ireland. When a mysterious murder shatters the decorum of the weekend, Scotland Yard's Superintendent Thomas Pitt and his clever wife Charlotte arrive to root out the truth. 368 pp. 12-city author tour. National publicity. TV ads. 50,000 print.