The Silent Murder

London, 1595. A messenger is attacked outside Tom Musgrave’s house and dies carrying a bloodied letter intended for the swordsman. The damaged message is a plea from Countess Cotehel, who has been unable to speak since an earlier trauma. A second servant is killed, and a mutilated portrait convinces Tom that the violence is moving towards the countess herself.

Tom and his apprentice travel to Castle Cotehel in Cornwall, where household loyalty, inheritance and fear make every explanation unreliable. The countess cannot give a conventional accusation, and those around her interpret her silence for their own purposes. The investigation turns an isolated castle into a contest over who controls a vulnerable woman’s story and estate.