FALSE GOLD

Bea Abbot returns to the Home Counties to support a beleaguered landowner.

After Sir Julian Marston-Lang’s shady family did their level best to see that he didn’t inherit Marston Hall, his stately ancestral home outside of London, in Heley’s last book, False Witness (2024), some of the locals are determined that his efforts to rehabilitate the neglected property come to naught. Egged on by Sir Julian’s own general manager, Major Ian Charpentier, villagers commit acts of aggression that range from whispering campaigns about possible illicit relations with his secretary to break-ins on his grounds, the latter resulting in the death of a man purported to be his groundskeeper, Pete. Sir Julian, who’s sure the dead man isn’t Pete, persuades his friend Bea Abbot to come up from London to prove his case. The police have little interest in the murder, and as it turns out, neither does Bea. Her main role seems to be propping up Sir Julian and his pregnant wife, Lady Polly, as they strive selflessly to make life better for the villagers. As in previous installments, the contrast between good and evil couldn’t be more stark. Sir Julian and Lady Polly are prudent, generous, and determined. Old Jenny, the nonagenarian village midwife, is skilled and shrewd. Major Charpentier is scheming, greedy, and endlessly corrupt. Questions about whether Pete is really dead, where he might be, and who the murderer is fall by the wayside. The real battle is Lord Gracious vs. Major Smarmy, and the real mystery is why Sir Julian doesn’t just fire the son of a bitch.

Here’s hoping for a return to London, where the landscape, and the moral climate, offer more shades of gray.