The Hampstead Mystery

Detective‑Inspector Chippenfield of Scotland Yard receives a frantic, handwritten telegram announcing that Sir Horace Fewbanks has been shot dead in the library of his country house, Riversbrook. The note is deliberately obfuscating, even concealing the writer’s identity, and it arrives just as the local police in Hampstead are convinced the baronet is still out hunting in Scotland. Chippenfield’s call to Inspector Seldon sparks a race against time, forcing both men to question a report that may be a cruel hoax or the first thread of a tangled mystery.

Seldon scrambles his sergeants, summons a taxi, and heads for Riversbrook, where the house‑maid and the butler each offer conflicting accounts of the family’s movements. The fog‑laden countryside, the nervous constable, and the uneasy silence of an empty manor set the stage for a classic whodunit, with every clue hinting at hidden motives among servants, neighbours, and perhaps the victim himself. Listeners are drawn into a 1916 world where a single cryptic message can unravel a whole community’s peace.