The Ninth Earl

by Jeffery Farnol Book 7 in the Jasper Shrig Mysteries series.

First published 1950

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2.9(17)

A storm tears masonry from the old tower at Ravenhurst Castle and exposes the skeleton of the seventh earl, missing for years. The discovery immediately threatens the position of the eighth earl and opens the question of a rightful heir whose existence had been unknown. When that heir is found with unexpected speed, the castle’s inhabitants become entangled in murder, succession and competing claims.

Jasper Shrig works through village gossip, fragmentary evidence and the behaviour of a family whose security depends on the past remaining buried. Farnol uses a crumbling aristocratic house as both setting and metaphor: inheritance is material, legal and psychological, and the solution depends on reconstructing a history that several characters would prefer to control. Romance accompanies the investigation but cannot be separated from the dynastic stakes.