The Coat of Arms

A series of bizarre burglaries grips the village of Sketchley, beginning with the escape of a long-confined asylum patient. When silver vanishes from manor houses and then mysteriously reappears, suspicion turns toward a figure glimpsed in the moonlight-a white-bearded old man said to have murdered his keeper.Amid growing panic, innkeeper John Lorney and a visiting American detective begin to unravel a sinister tale of hidden identities, deception, and guilt. As romantic entanglements and personal secrets threaten to derail the investigation, the village faces a haunting question: Is the returned madman a menace-or a pawn in a deeper conspiracy?