Young lawyer, Crockett Cook, arrives at the decrepit Hawsfeffer Estate in rural England where he's stunned to discover the family patriarch vanished and foul play suspected. A carnival of characters is lusting over the family fortune - a fallen nun, a truculent huntsman, an aloof arsonist, and the overly pretentious, bejeweled matriarch. With his tendency to shriek like a drunken bird in the face of danger, Crockett enlists the help of his master, Petrarch, and the family's daughter, Brontë, to follow a trail of clues from the uncertain present through the family's murderous and mysterious past.

Combining multiple genres, Beatrice is more than a cozy mystery - it's a laugh-filled, sleuthing extravaganza.