Days Without Number

A terrible secret forces a family into a deadly conflict with an unseen persecutor. Nick Paleologus is summoned by his family to help resolve a dispute which threatens to set his brothers and sisters against their aged and irrascible father. Michael Paleologus, retired archeologist and supposed descendent of the last Emperors of Byzantium, lives alone at Trennor, a remote and rambling Cornish house. A ridiculously generous offer has been made for the house, but he refuses to sell despite the urgings of his children, for whom the proceeds would solve a variety of problems. Nick accomplishes little in the role of mediator, and it is only when the stalemate is tragically broken that he and his siblings discover why their father insisted on rejecting the offer and what may really be the motives of the prospective buyer. . .