London, 1890. When an unsigned letter arrives at Blackthorn House, its message is brief, peculiar and impossible to ignore: one chamber hides coal beneath silk and the key lies in a missing brief.

By morning, the warning has taken form. A will left in a solicitor’s study has vanished from a locked room. The desk was secured. The windows were latched. The keys were accounted for. If the document is not recovered, an inheritance may be unsettled, a professional reputation may suffer and a respectable household may find itself exposed to scandal.

To the police, it appears to be theft.
To the lawyers, it is a problem of proof.
To Kriston Valehart, it is a question of arrangement.

With his cousin Edwin beside him, Kriston follows the quieter evidence others overlook: hesitation, habit, etiquette, coal dust and the careful manners of men with something to lose.

Narrated with wit, restraint and a barrister’s eye for consequence, Coal Under Silk is a Victorian mystery of inheritance, reputation, legal danger and the stains hidden beneath polite society.

In a city of fog, etiquette and carefully kept appearances, Kriston Valehart does not chase lies.
He cross-examines them until they betray themselves.