The Reluctant Heir (The Dr Adam Bascom Mysteries Book 6)

A young man heading for self-destruction. A hopeless dream that wrecks people’s lives. A treacherous criminal eager to exploit an easy target.

Sir Adam Bascom, 18th-century Norfolk baronet and physician, grudgingly takes on a case he never wanted. It’s going to frustrate him time and time again, and take him on an investigative journey involving greed, revenge, treachery and obsession.

There were many wild, womanising Georgian rakes — and then there was Frederick Dalston: a young man hellbent on bringing total ruin to himself and his family. Yet when his body is found one morning on a lonely Norfolk road, matters take a more sinister turn. Is it a case of a highway robbery gone wrong? Revenge taken by one of the scores of people he had harmed? A random killing by a maniac? A punishment inflicted by a ruthless gang of freetraders?

The local coroner and magistrate quickly give up hope of finding the murderer. Several weeks then pass in inaction, until William Dalston, the dead man’s father, comes to see newly-married Sir Adam Bascom to plead for his help in finding who killed his son and heir. Adam has only just returned from his honeymoon and is reluctant to get involved. Finally, at the urging of his new wife, he agrees to make a few preliminary enquiries. What he finds sets him off on a full-scale investigation.

As Adam threads his way through the wreckage of Frederick Dalston’s life, he becomes more and more confused. Dalston appeared to have gone out of his way to make bitter enemies on every side. At last, the discovery of the schemes of a shadowy figure in Norwich’s criminal underworld, followed by an emotional confrontation in a country house, reveal the shocking truth about the true causes of Frederick Dalston’s death; and why his killer had, in desperation, been driven to commit murder to protect things he valued more than life itself.

“The Reluctant Heir” is latest instalment in a series of historical mysteries which has drawn rave reviews from both sides of the Atlantic.