Fiction

The Brasenose Bequest – free eBook

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The first section of Edwin Leane’s The Brasenose Bequest is now released as an eBook – and you can download it free here.

The central character in The Brasenose Bequest is not a person. It is a crumbling, tree-shrouded mansion built by a fortune hunter from the far side of the world who found a rich vein of gold in the Ballarat diggings of Victorian-era Australia.

Although it was a symbol of wealth and power, Nether Parkley has a dark secret. And even though the original owner has long been in his grave, the secret continues to bind whoever acquires ownership of the brooding old house.

When expatriate Englishman Hugo Brasenose dies he leaves Nether Parkley to his young friend Allan Neale. The gift – which Hugo laconically describes as ‘The Brasenose Bequest’ – comes as no great surprise to the recipient, but a brace of codicils is something else entirely.

Allan must live in Nether Parkley for at least ten months of every year, and is not permitted to dispose of the property in his lifetime. Why?
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The Brasenose Bequest

Coming soon to Knocklofty as a multi-part eBook

The Brasenose Bequest, by Australian author Edwin Leane, is a tale of a mysterious inheritance and the secrets locked deep in the fabric of a rotting mansion in the old goldfields of Ballarat, interwoven with shadowy intrigue and spiced with a fiery romance.

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The first section will be offered free to whet your appetite. Once you’re hooked, you’ll be able to buy the next installments at a price well below that of a printed book.

And here’s how the scene is set:

Henry Puckle was waiting for me at the top of the stairs in his Lydiard Street chambers, ajig with suppressed excitement. “Good morning, good morning,” he cried, dancing from foot to foot in an absurd, elephantine sort of way. “Good to be alive on such a beautiful day, don’t you think?”

I peered up at him in disbelief and the beginnings of a bright anger. I had called on Henry Puckle, B.Comm, LL.B (Hons) by appointment for the reading of the last Will and Testament of Hugo Horatio Brasenose, friend and mentor, and a man only newly reunited with his maker.

‘Coronary failure’ was the cause of death according to the local GP – very quick, very unexpected. Brasenose had retired early one night and had been found with an open book on the floor next to his bed and unfinished glass of whiskey on his bedside table. The physician was of the opinion Brasenose may have actually drifted off to sleep before he suffered the fatal attack. Why else the abandoned nightcap? Why no attempt to skewer a page with a bookmark? Not that any of it mattered; my dear friend, a man I valued above all others, simply never awoke.

“Oh dear,” said the little solicitor, hand flying to his mouth. “That’s hardly appropriate given the circumstances, is it? I do apologise. Quite unforgiveable. But come in, Mr Neale, come in. I’ve just made a pot of tea and I’m sure you’d like a cuppa before we get down to business.” [read more …]

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