A Christmas Visitor

It is mid-December and Henry Rathbone travels to the Dreghorn family manor house near Ullswater. But despite the festive season and the beautiful surroundings, this is not a happy occasion; he is going to comfort the family following the death of his friend, the master of the house [Judah Dreghorn]. It seems that Judah Dreghorn slipped while crossing a stream on the grounds of the estate in the middle of the night, and drowned. And when Henry arrives, he finds that there is more than a widow’s grief to contend with.

Ashton Gower, recently released from jail, is slandering Judah’s name, claiming that he was wrongfully imprisoned for forging the deeds to the estate that the Dreghorns now own. Gower insists that his family rightfully owns the estate and that the deeds were genuine. It seems preposterous to Henry that Judah, a judge in the local court, could be accused of sending an innocent man to prison and blackening his reputation in order to steal his inheritance. To Henry and the two remaining Dreghorn brothers, also returning to the Lakes for Christmas, Judah’s mysterious death and Gower’s outrageous claims seem inextricably linked. Is Gower a murderer as well as a liar? Or could the life-long idolisation of a close friend and older brother be blinding them all to the truth?