When couturière-turned-sleuth Jemima Flowerday accepts a last-minute invitation to a 'Murder Weekend' at Firebrace Court, a crumbling Devon mansion perched on a storm-lashed headland, she expects nothing more than champagne, theatrics, and the fun of playing the daughter of a fictitious duchess. The whole thing is meant to be 'an absolute hoot'.

But the hoot turns to horror within hours. The arrival of Hal and Daisy Merriweather – fabulously wealthy Texans lured to Firebrace by hints of Hal's ancestral claim to the estate – is as spectacular as their motorcar: a gleaming Bentley that skids on the rain-soaked drive and crashes into the ancient bridge. The structure collapses into the swollen stream below, revealing a man's skeleton tangled among the wreckage. And the discovery of a fresh murder turns the screw. The killer must be one of those within the house. Family member, staff or guest. This murder weekend is only too real...