The Stately Home Murder

by Catherine Aird

Book 3 in the Sloan and Crosby series
published 1969

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In 1970s England, a broke nobleman and a body in a suit of armor present a puzzling mystery in this witty novel by a Diamond Dagger Award winner.

The owners of Ornum Hall have fallen on hardtimes, so every Sunday they open the doors to their stately home of some 300 rooms to the paying public. When murder strikes, Inspector Sloan of the Calleshire C.I.D. grabs his Burke’s Peerage and heads out to find out who stuffed a body in a knight’s armor. The third–and funniest–of the Callehsire Chronicles.

It is the early 1970s, and times are tough in the upper reaches of British society. To survive the changing times, the Earl of Ornum has done the previously unthinkable and opened his estate to wandering tourists. One day, a hyperactive little boy and his family are roaming Ornum House delightedly. The curious tyke sees a full suit of armor and lifts the visor . . . only to see a face staring out at him.

As Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan soon finds, the man in the suit of armor is dead—and there’s a slew of suspects waiting to be interviewed. Was it the ditzy duchess? The disappointing nephew? One of the servants? The earl himself? It’s up to Sloan and his wisecracking sidekick, Detective Constable Crosby, to find out before the murderer strikes again.