Governess and sleuth Harriet Unwin investigates the murder of her employer in a Victorian mystery by the Gold Dagger Award–winning author of The Governess.

For a respectable governess like Harriet Unwin, her first few weeks in the wealthy yet inhospitable home of the Partingtons are as unhappy as any she could remember. The bone-chilling cold, the grim sparseness of the meals, and the embittered meanness of old Mr. Partington all contribute to an overall air of gloom. If not for the kindness shown by Mr. Partington's son, Richard, her spirit would surely be crushed. But worse is yet to come for Harriet.

When a chance discovery reveals Mr. Partington's most cherished secret, Harriet is sure that the shock is what causes the old man's fatal heart attack. The doctor, however, thinks otherwise. It was neither illness nor old age that killed poor Mr. Partington. It was poison. And when suspicion falls on Richard, it's up to Harriet to find the real killer and save an innocent man from the gallows.

Author of the popular Inspector Ghote series, H.R.F. Keating writes the charming and chilling Harriet Unwin mysteries under the pseudonym Evelyn Hervey.