Mortomley's Estate: A Novel. Vol. 1 (of 3)

The novel shifts between City offices and a threatened country estate, introducing a veteran public accountant whose work in bankruptcy reveals the predatory and numbing side of urban finance. At the same time a family at the estate confronts mounting debts, social embarrassment, entangled loyalties, and private sorrows as secrets and legal pressures emerge. Personal relationships and class anxieties are examined through domestic scenes, legal and financial manoeuvres, and pointed social observation; moments of compassion and moral questioning counterbalance satiric portraits of avarice, while a chain of disclosures and decisions pushes the household toward an uncertain resolution.