Leicestershire, 1774. Following a minor royal scandal, Susan Bell’s father has lost his post as Dean of Westminster, and the two find themselves exiled to the family’s country seat, Fortune Hall. Susan fills her days attempting to prevent her fiance Lindley from being married off to a richer bride, while her father takes on the tutorship of Francis North, son of the Prime Minister. When a visiting surveyor mysteriously disappears near a fast-flowing river, leaving only his coat and hat behind, the man is presumed to have drowned. Susan alone is not convinced by this explanation, or by that of eccentric visiting librarian Mr Quintrel, who declares the surveyor likely lost in a network of tunnels that form the tomb of the mythical King Lear. But when the young Francis North also disappears, Susan knows that her family’s reputation is at stake and she must investigate. What did the surveyor stumble upon that someone would possibly kill to hide? And what darker secrets are waiting to be revealed?
