A lost garden, smugglers, a lighthouse and a squabbling family. Murder on the Cornish Cliffs by Verity Bright starts as intrepid amateur detective Lady Eleanor Swift receives a plea for help from Mr Godfrey Cunliffe, an old friend of her beloved Uncle Byron, who thinks someone is trying to kill him. So the week before Christmas Ellie and butler Clifford drive to Cornwall to see if they can help. They plan to stay a few days then rush back to Henley Hall in time for a delightful Christmas surrounded by home comforts and with Ellie reunited with her fiance, Chief Inspector Hugh Seldon. But everything goes wrong from the beginning. Nothing at Gwel an Mor is as expected. The clifftop house is more a mausoleum, the garden overgrown. And when Ellie and Clifford pull into the drive they find the police. Mr Cunliffe’s gardener is dead. Did he commit suicide or, as Mr Cunliffe fears, was St Clair killed by mistake for his employer. The two men are physically similar.
Local policeman, Inspector Trevilick, has put in a call to Sergeant Brice in Chipstone’s police station so is well aware of Lady Swift’s detecting history. Cautiously, he allows her to investigate as long as she shares her find...