The mystery of the Peacock's Eye

The opening night of the season finds the Westhampton Hunt Ball in full swing, a glittering tableau of aristocrats, brass bands, and whispered rumors of royal attendance. Beneath the polished veneer of waltzes and champagne, lingering anxieties stir – a recent banking scandal that threatened to topple the county’s most venerable families still haunts the conversation. Sir Matthew Fullgarney, the Lord Lieutenant, moves through the crowd with practiced elegance, while Major Carruthers watches the guests with a detective’s keen eye, noting an unfamiliar face that has slipped into the circle unnoticed.

When a distinguished visitor arrives under the guise of polite society, the atmosphere shifts from revelry to suspicion. A stolen heirloom, a cryptic clue known only as the “Peacock’s Eye,” and a series of baffling thefts pull Chief‑Inspector Bannister into the fray. As the ballroom lights dim, the first clues emerge, promising a tangled web of deception that will pull the county’s elite into a hunt far more dangerous than any fox in the fields.