A Haunting at Holkham

In 1950, 17-year-old Anne Coke, the autobiographical heroine of this exceptional English country house mystery from Glenconner (Murder on Mustique), is called back to real-life Holkham Hall in Norfolk after her grandfather, the fourth earl of Leicester, dies from a tumble down the stairs. A copy of the Coke necklace is found in his pocket. Where is the real diamond necklace? And was the earl’s fall really an accident? Despite Anne’s growing suspicions, her father refuses to “have a lot of policemen crawling around the house asking questions... what if it got into the press?” Underpinning Anne’s investigations are harrowing flashbacks to 1943 when she was left in the care of a sadistic governess while her parents were living in Egypt, where her father served with the Scots Guards. Between the two timelines, the facts behind the earl’s death emerge. Glenconner, who served as lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, draws on her own memories of life at Holkham for insights into an era and the foibles of the British upper class. With its vivid, authentic details, this one stands out from the pack of similar such mysteries. Agent: Gordon Wise, Curtis Brown Agency (U.K.). (Dec.)