When Frances Ivory told her grandmother "there's something going on" down at the gallery off St James's, it was an understatement. It was not just the little things - the broken Kang-Tse vase, a painting slashed - it was the climate of evil closing in on an old and respected business.
Some objects just cry out to be stolen, and an obliging ring of international thieves stands ready to heed the cry. Their current target is the Gyrth Chalice, a priceless goblet that the Gyrth family has for centuries held in trust for the British Crown. Kept in a windowless chapel, and protected by a fearsome curse, the Chalice should be impervious to thievery. But this is 1930, and the crooks have all the advantages of the modern world.
The challenge of an ancient riddle, a journey to a village accursed, and a corporate mogul in the business of murder prove the Pontisbright family legacy to be a deadly inheritance in this ingenious tale of witchcraft, myth, and mystery. The clues that lead to the solution and the heirlooms, however, do not elude urbane, erudite Albert Campion.
From the opening scene in a London 'pea-souper', the descriptive powers of this writer suck you into the strange and captivating thriller. Set in post-WWII London, each of the characters is wonderfully and mesmorisingly described, with effective cameos, such as the first meeting between the police inspector Luke and the old Canon Avril.
Murder turns a weekend house party at Black Dudley Manor into a deadly affair when the host is discovered brutally slain. Nor do gruesome rituals, callous interrogations, and perilous traps add to the fun. Fatal mystification might win the day, if Albert Campion were not there to sift through the motives and clues as with brilliant detection and his signature charm he penetrates the heart of the crime.
