The coast of Cornwall is the setting for [The Ampersand Papers], Sir John Appleby's return to crime investigation. The retired Scotland Yard inspector is admiring Treskinnick Castle when the external staircase to the tower collapses and Appleby witnesses an old man plunging to his death…. Appleby senses murder, and his investigation leads him to the core of family enmity and a fascinating literary puzzle involving correspondence between Ampersand's ancestor Adrian Digitt and Percy Bysshe Shelley.