1925, Cork Ireland... Mother Superior receives a trunk from the Local Auctioneer labeled "Old School Books". As she is about to open it a young man rushes in to claim the trunk saying: "I think that may be my trunk, Reverend Mother" (expecting a cache of guns)...

When the unlocked trunk pops open, they find the corpse of the young man's father, clearly not what either of them expected. The young man then pulls out a revolver & fires emptying all the bullets into his father's corpse.

The young man had wanted to go to the university & study mathematics, when his father refused to pay for a university education, the young man instead joined the "Republicans".

His father was a very wealthy "self-made" man, a tanner & purveyor of goods to the government during the war. His father has left behind 12 children (10 boys & twin girls), a wife, a new house that they were all about to move into, the two connected old houses, & a vast fortune which seems to have disappeared.

Oddly the father had signed a will the morning he was murdered, leaving everything to his wife, but in the control of his rival & a shady lawyer....

With the help of the skin merchant's daughter, a determined young republican woman, the local doctor, & a young police; Mother Superior, a young detective inspector, and the local doctor are able to solve the crime, but not before two more people are murdered.

The story was interesting, there was no lack of suspects, the Red Herrings were obvious, and there were two huge loose ends that made me knock off 1/2 star. ( )