The Masters of the House - Softcover

In the late winter of 1979, Leeds housewife Ellen Heenan dies in childbirth - abandoning a guilt-stricken husband to insanity's grasp and leaving four young children to find for themselves.

Thirteen-year-old Matthew and Annie, age twelve, know what the authorities will do if the learn of Father's debilitating madness. A close-knit family will be speedily unravelled, its threads scattered carelessly to the winds. So deception is the only recourse - a façade of normalcy that must be carefully constructed to fool prying neighbourhood eyes. And resourceful young Matthew and his sister have the situation well in hand - until a freshly slain corpse turns up beneath the kitchen window . . .

'Gripping and satisfying' Chicago Tribune

'Subtle and surprising . . . Robert Barnard at his best' San Diego Union-Tribune

'A sad, sweet horror of a story . . . the suspense is delicious.' New York Times Book Review

Robert Barnard was a well-established crime writer. He won the prestigious Nero Wolfe Award as well as the Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Awards, was been nominated eight times for the Edgar Award and was the winner of the 2003 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for a lifetime of achievement. He also wrote crime novels under the pseudonym of Bernard Bastable. He lived with his wife in Leeds and had over 45 titles published in the UK and US.