The grenadillo box - Janet Gleeson

It all starts with a body in the library. When Lord Montford is discovered shot, sprawled on the floor of his newly completed library, his faithful hound dead at his feet, a mystery is uncovered, the answer to which has its origins thirty years in the past. Nathaniel Hopson, journeyman for Thomas Chippendale, the famous English furniture designer, and the man who built Montford's sumptuous library, is the first on the scene. Within hours another body is discovered, that of Nathaniel's closest friend John Partridge, his hands badly mutilated. How is it that a Lord of the realm and a cabinetmaker's assistant should both be found dead on the same night, both in suspicious circumstances? Nathaniel is set on a course as the reluctant detective, driven to discover the truth of his friend's mysterious death and his connection with the murder of Lord Montford. In The Grenadillo Box Janet Gleeson has produced a detective story as intricately crafted as a Chippendale cabinet, a gripping story which brings to dramatic life the world of the Eighteenth century.