Strathallan Castle near Auchterarder was the seat of the Drummond family for 700 years. The debut novel of a Devon-based historian explores how one of the castle's 19th-century inhabitants, Francis Colebrooke Drummond, became inadvertently embroiled in a tragedy at Suez while returning home from military service in India.
Written in the form of historical fiction, Avarice of Empire tells the previously untold true story of Captain Charles Agnew, a cavalry officer with whom Francis Drummond served in the Scarlet Lancers and who died 'by the hand of an assassin' in Egypt on March 22, 1873.
The author began researching Charles Agnew's life and the circumstances of his death after being intrigued by the unique wording of a Victorian memorial tablet in Canterbury Cathedral during a visit in May 2015.
"Every day for the past century and a half, people have been wondering who Charles Agnew was, what he was doing in Egypt, and why he was killed. I was among them and I knew it was a history I wanted to write," said Turnstone.
"Although Avarice of Empire is Charles Agnew's biography first and last, it's also about the fortitude of Victorian women, class division and colonial prejudice, early photography and the embryonic intelligence service, a revolution in global communications, and how an Irishman discovered what would become India’s largest gold mine," the author added.
Strathallan Castle and estate were sold to the Roberts family in 1910. The castle is now an exclusive wedding venue.