Murder in the Abandoned Manor

An abandoned English manor. A missing portrait. A murdered caretaker.
Not the kind of inheritance she was expecting...

After experiencing the death of her mother, a divorce, and losing her job in publishing over the past year, American Jo Jones suddenly inherits a family estate in North Yorkshire. However, she faces not a luxurious palace, but a grim mansion that has been vacant for over a hundred years. With a hole in the roof, mold in the corners, a neglected garden, and a nearly rotting library. Nevertheless, Jo, who possesses truly encyclopedic knowledge but is shy when interacting with people, is not deterred. She eagerly takes on the task of restoring the manor and exploring the history of her family, of which she knows almost nothing.

Then Jo discovers the lifeless body of the caretaker of her new home with three gunshot wounds in the back. And she realizes that she could become the main suspect in the murder. At the same time, a special portrait mysteriously connected to the discovered corpse and the enigmatic history of her family disappears from a secret room in the mansion.

With the help of an antique dealer from Wales, a grumpy local detective, and the wife of the pub owner, Jo must find the missing painting. Along the way, she uncovers extremely unpleasant secrets of the small town and her own family. And she must accomplish all this before the killer strikes again...