The Loring Mystery

by Jeffery Farnol Book 2 in the Jasper Shrig Mysteries series.

First published 1925

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3.8(16)

A violent death in Sussex draws Bow Street investigator Jasper Shrig into a country-house world where old loyalties, family interests and romantic attachments make every testimony suspect. The apparent simplicity of the crime dissolves as Shrig reconstructs movements, motives and concealed relationships, while those closest to the dead discover that social position offers little protection from suspicion.

Farnol combines the manners and landscapes of his Georgian and Regency romances with a more deliberate detective structure. Shrig works through observation, questioning and an understanding of human vanity rather than modern forensic science, placing the investigation within the institutions and assumptions of early nineteenth-century criminal justice. Romance and adventure remain present, but the mystery controls the pace and resolution.