Roger Bennion Series / The Writing on the Wall / Herbert Adams

Newspaper mogul Sir James Norland invites the editors of his papers to his country home, The Brambles, to discuss how their journals can influence the shaping of a brave new world after the last devastating war. The magnate has also invited Lady Diana and her mother, Lady Mellowfont – an impoverished marquise. Sir James has found a loophole that could revive their dried-up aristocratic bloodline, and in return he wants Lady Diana to marry his son Peter and produce a son, his grandson, who will be a marquis. Much to the chagrin of Sir James and Lady Mellowfont, their children have given their hearts away to others, and Peter manages to anger his father when he shows up with his mistress, a dancer named Ambrosine. The reason for his annoyance, according to Sir James, is that Ambrosine is his illegitimate daughter and therefore his half-sister.
The crumpled remains of Sir James are found at the foot of the stairs the next morning, but it was not a fall that killed him, but a blow to the head, and not with the proverbial blunt object. Also, the house had been broken into, the butler drugged, and Peter Norland was nowhere to be found on the premises. Inspector Farnell quickly and competently solves the burglary, relying on a cupboard with a key on the inside of the door and a floor littered with biscuit crumbs, but the killer of Sir James Norland remains as elusive as ever until Roger Bennion arrives on the scene.