The Death of Colonel Mann (Beacon Hill)

Behind the curtained windows of Victorian Boston is a world of passion scandal ... and murder.. In life he was the most despised man in Boston publisher of the towns scurrilous gossip sheet -- and buyer and seller of peoples most scandalous indiscretions. Now Colonel William dArcy Mann lies on the floor of his fashionable hotel suite the victim of a single gunshot wound to the heart.. Addington Ames came to recover a packet of love letters written by his young cousin Val that had fallen into the blackmailing colonels possession. But when he discovers Manns corpse instead Ames suddenly finds himself at the center of a murder inquiry his name splashed across the town newspapers. . With Val facing public disgrace -- on the eve of marriage to an impeccable member of Brahmin society -- Amess only hope is to find the damning missives which he believes vanished with the killer. With the help of his sister Caroline and their boarder Dr. John MacKenzie he moves through Bostons most prominent social circles in search of a well-concealed murderer whose final act of violence will leave no life -- highborn or low -- untouched...