The Shortest Way to Hades
272 pages | paperback |
Inheritance becomes deadly in this gripping literary puzzle—the second installment of Sarah Caudwell’s brilliant Hilary Tamar mystery series.
Die first. Pay later.
It seems the perfect way to avoid three million in taxes on a five-million-pound estate: change the trust arrangement. Everyone in the family agrees to support the heiress, the ravishing, raven-haired Camilla Galloway, in her court petition—except dreary Cousin Deirdre, who sullenly demands a small fortune for her signature. Then Deirdre has a fatal accident. Now the young London barristers handling the trust from their Lincoln’s Inn chambers—Michael Cantrip, Selena Jardine, Timothy Shepherd, Desmond Ragwort, and Julia Larwood—must call on the expertise of their Oxford mentor and friend Professor Hilary Tamar. Julia suspects murder. Hilary demurs. But when the accidents escalate, and a naked “lunch” at Uncle Rupert’s is—how to put it?—exposed, Hilary the Scholar embarks on the most perilous quest of all: to find the truth and thus unmask the killer.
The Shortest Way to Hades is published here in the first new edition in more than twenty years. The Washington Post says: “Read [it] for dazzling dialogue, witty observation, stylish use of the language and choice comic scenes.”
“An utterly delightful book . . . [I]t will be irresistible to all who enjoy polished, civilized prose.” —The New York Times Book Review
