The Shape of Sand by Marjorie Eccles
Charnley was once the proud home of the upper class Jardine family, renowned for throwing wonderful parties to the local gentry. However, the family?s seemingly secure world is ripped apart when a scandal catapults them into the headlines, the night in question remaining cloaked in mystery for the best part of forty years. Four decades later, the house sold and the family split up, workmen discover two shoe-boxes stuffed full of old letters and photos hidden away by Harriet Jardine all those years ago. Memories long since buried resurface, as she finds herself reliving those painful last moments before her fortunes changed forever. But Harriet discovers that the scandal of forty years ago was so much worse than anyone had ever suspected when a mummified and brutally murdered body is found hidden behind one of the chimneys in the great house, and the family are plunged into new controversy. As the dark secrets of the Jardine family are gradually exposed, the reserved facade of the upper class family is stripped away in the dangerous search for the truth.