Sepulcral by Curtis Garland

Catalog Note *Sepulcral* by Curtis Garland is a Gothic mystery-thriller set in 1890 England. The narrative opens with a lengthy letter from Melvin Nordham, a wealthy but paranoid English gentleman living in Newcastle, to his old Oxford friend Reed Garfield in New York. Nordham, convinced he is dying of an incurable disease and harboring dark suspicions about those surrounding him, begs Garfield to cross the Atlantic immediately, claiming someone in his household—possibly his wife Honor, his cousin Ralph, his niece Hazel, his lawyer Peter Seymour, or others—is plotting his murder. Garfield receives the letter and promptly books passage to England. The narrative then shifts to Nordham receiving Garfield's response telegram, triggering a bout of sinister laughter before he witnesses his wife Honor and his lawyer Seymour meeting covertly in the garden. The opening establishes paranoia, suspicion of infidelity, and murder conspiracy as central plot elements. The text becomes fragmentary thereafter.