St.John Whilloe is the black sheep member of a wealthy legal family, whose firm of solicitors looks after the affairs of many of the top families in the country. He is consulted by a young woman who claims to be frightened by her husband. Things are not as they seem and St.John finds himself drawn into a complex web of intrigue and murder. He is soon in a race against time to solve a mystery with roots in a tortured family history, with sinister paranormal undertones.
It is too early to tell what impact of the Kavanaugh appointment to the Supreme Court will have. The whole process has shown America at its worst and the structure of the US Supreme Court is like no other. It is as if the founding fathers took fright at the potential of their new democracy and curbed its power by setting up a nine headed king who in the end would have the final say. At first it was a court of law, but now it has become a kind of council of state and, if the fears of some commentators and academics are to be taken seriously, one in the grip of partisan ideology. Let us hope, when the dust settles, unfortunately Trump keeps kicking it up, impartiality and fair judgment will prevail.
Nevertheless hopes, especially of those who strove so hard and successfully to drive the Kavanaugh appointment through, are raised in the expectation of rolling back rights to abortion, gay marriage, LGBT issues, gun control and a host of other personal freedoms and protections taken for granted in most other Western countries. Certainly such moves would strain the Special Relationship, with the social models of the US and UK out of step with each other. Shared values would have a hollow ring.