In a house of art, the masterpiece is murder.

Rhydsbury House, an artists’ retreat in rural Shropshire, is home to the eccentric painter Alistair Blair. Its tranquillity shatters when the new maid, Rosie Blackthorne, discovers Blair’s wife garrotted in his white room. Suspicion falls on Blair and his estranged brother, recently returned after six years abroad.

Fresh from solving the Montgomery Canal murder, Inspector Isabelle Cannon is called in. But as inconsistencies emerge, she soon discovers the truth hidden in Rhydsbury House is far darker than it first appears.