Death Amid The Winter Snow

An icy blast had descended on Whitstone Manor in the winter of 1935 as the Oldacre family gathered for their annual get together. The yearly pilgrimage to the family home, set amongst the lonely tors of Dartmoor, was something not many of the family looked forward to but something that had to be borne with fortitude until they had the chance to escape. Failure to appear would cause displeasure and might result in the changing of a Will and the loss of a potential inheritance.

This year was no exception but as they all arrived for what must be endured rather than enjoyed, they could not have known that a sudden death would change their lives. For some, perhaps, a legacy which would enable them to realise their ambitions but for one or more of them, a loss of freedom and nothing to look forward to but the gallows if they were named as the murderer of Silas Oldacre, the patriarch who ruled his family with a rod of iron but who, this year, met a violent and unnatural end.

The storm which raged outside had cut them off from the outside world for two days and eventually they were able to leave but only as far as the village hall in Postbridge where Detective Chief Inspector Appleby was waiting to speak to them.