The Puzzle of Blackstone Lodge

June 15, 2023
Or, more exactly, "puzzles," since the Yorkshire site of the title is the scene of a series of baffling mysteries stretching back 300 years. Asked in 1930 by British Museum clerk Vernon Murray to look into the suspicious death of his mother, Ursula, while she was a patient in Blackstone Sanatorium, journalist Nell Fagan leans into her own network for help. Her colleague and friend Jacob Flint is willing to tear himself away from his investigation of two potentially fake mediums to help ask questions about professor Wilfred Sambrook, the alienist who bought Blackstone Lodge from Harold Lejeune, whose family had owned it for centuries, and founded the sanatorium. But Rachel Savernake, the wealthy star investigator Nell approaches, is less willing. All the locals know that back in 1606, Edmund Mellor, a guest of Blackstone's very first owner, entered the lodge, locked the door behind him, and vanished, and that Harold's brother, Alfred Lejeune, repeated the trick in 1914. But new developments come thick as hasty pudding. Vernon Murray dies in a convenient accident in the London Underground. Nell uncovers a string of untimely deaths of Blackstone patients. When Nell herself vanishes and Rachel finally agrees to take over the case, it turns out to have more courses than a tasting menu. Readers who aren't already reeling from the string of climactic revelations will be properly chastened by the appended Cluefinder, in which Edwards, borrowing still one more page from the past, reminds them of all the evidence they overlooked along the way. A triple-decker banquet honoring the golden age of mysteries and bidding fair to continue it to the present.

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June 19, 2023
Heiress Rachel Savernake investigates baffling deaths and disappearances that take place centuries apart in Edwards’s intricate third mystery featuring the amateur sleuth (following 2020’s Mortmain Hall). Nell Fagan, looking to reignite her career as an investigative journalist in 1930s England, enlists Rachel’s help untangling two disappearances—one in 1606, one in the early 20th century—from the locked gatehouse of the mysterious Blackstone Lodge. Then Nell disappears. With the assistance of her friend Jacob Flint (also Nell’s colleague), plus the lodge’s housemaid, cook, and one of its current guests, Rachel investigates residents of the surrounding Yorkshire village of Blackstone Fell, including employees and patients of a local sanatorium, a former soldier, a fire-and-brimstone minister, and the minister’s troubled wife. During the investigation, more disappearances occur, and the arrival of a local medium and her taciturn assistant set the stage for a riveting climax. Fans of golden age mysteries will enjoy Edwards’s smart plot twists and “clue finder” lists, which were a staple for 20th-century fair play writers. This is a satisfying puzzle for established genre fans and a good starting point for readers looking to dip their toes into Agatha Christie–adjacent fare. Agent: Claire Kennedy, Head of Zeus.