The Luck of the Vails

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY WH Auden, Nancy Mitford and Noel Coward were among his fans... But have you discovered E. F. Benson yet? In a Holbein portrait above the grand old fireplace, Francis Vail, second baronet, brandishes a beautiful golden goblet, encrusted with pearls, rubies and emeralds. But this treasure, the Luck of the Vails, has since brought the family nothing but ruin and death.

On the eve of his twenty-first birthday, Harry Vail discovers the Luck hidden in the attic of his ancestral home, the family curse is reawoken, and a tale of madness, avarice and murder unfolds.

Murder mystery... Ghost story... Whodunnit. This is a classic detective story from the author of Mapp and Lucia. Crime fiction at its best.

Edward Frederic Benson was born on July 24, 1867 in Berkshire, the son of a future Archbishop of Canterbury, and one of six children. He studied at Kings College, Cambridge and at the British School of Archaeology in Athens. Benson's first book,Dodo, was published to popular acclaim in 1893 and was followed by over a hundred books, including novels, histories, biographies and ghost stories. In 1920 Benson became a full-time tenant of Lamb House in Rye, which had once been home to the novelist Henry James. Rye provided the setting for theMapp and Luciastories and their author served three terms as mayor of Rye in the late 1930s. E.F. Benson died on February 29, 1940.

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY

Downton Abbey meets The Woman in Black - the author of Mapp and Lucia proves himself a master of murder mystery and country-house crime.