Introduction
Winter in the Colorado Rockies has a way of reminding visitors that nature, not man, commands the mountains. In December of 1928, storms rolled over the peaks with a force that swallowed roads, silenced telegraph lines, and left entire valleys locked beneath walls of drifting snow. Yet high above the town of Blackwood Station stood a mansion that seemed to defy the weather itself-Blackwood Manor, a grand estate built of dark timber and stone carved from the mountain's own spine.
For years the manor had been a place of rumor and fascination. Its owner, Baron Edgar Blackwood, held lavish winter gatherings that drew investors, writers, adventurers, and the curious elite from across the West. The holidays at the manor promised roaring fireplaces, glittering ballroom evenings, and the sense that one had stepped into a world far removed from the storms outside.
Into this remote and elegant setting arrived Lord Percival Harrington III, a visiting Englishman known for his calm intellect and sharp instincts. Polite in manner, precise in gesture, and endlessly observant, Percival seemed at first merely another distinguished guest seeking rest in the mountains. Yet those who watched him closely sensed a man accustomed to untangling complicated truths wherever he traveled.
On the night the festivities were to begin, the mountains delivered a storm fiercer than any in recent memory. Snow rose against the manor walls, wind clawed at the eaves, and the roads vanished beneath white silence. By nightfall, Blackwood Manor became fully cut off from the outside world-its guests isolated, its corridors echoing with celebration while the storm pressed in from all sides.
But isolation has a way of sharpening perception. Under the glow of lanterns and the hum of holiday music, something unsettled seemed to move beneath the surface of the house. Old family tensions, hidden rooms whispered about by the servants, ledgers kept under lock and chain-Blackwood Manor carried more than its share of history. And in the uneasy quiet between gusts of wind, Lord Harrington sensed that not all of that history wished to remain buried.
This book tells the story of what happened during those hours when the storm raged, the doors froze shut, and every person in the house found themselves enclosed within a mystery older and darker than the winter night. It is a tale of secrets, courage, and the search for truth when escape is impossible and every shadow seems to have a voice.
The investigation begins here, in the heart of a snowbound manor, where the past waits patiently to be uncovered.
