All seems calm in Castleton, New Zealand, but its small-town respectability hides guilty secrets and a tumult of rebellion. This is the story of three families, each dominated by a patriarch: the snobbish lawyer; the eccentric aristocrat; and the Maori chief, who meet to play three-handed chess. Their children and grandchildren begin to recognise that their seemingly structured, ordered society is slowly disintegrating . . .
Which of them will escape and fulfil their dreams? And why is someone prowling the town with murderous intent?
Set in New Zealand between the wars, Mortmain is comic, eccentric, accomplished and poignant.
