The Argosy, Vol. 29

# The Mysteries of Heron Dyke

This serialized mystery novel opens in post-Waterloo England with Gilbert Denison, a sixty-year-old gentleman, dying in his Bloomsbury lodgings following a riding accident. At his bedside is his young nephew and heir, also Gilbert—a dissolute rake of twenty-three who has squandered his inheritance through gambling and riotous living in London. The dying man confronts his nephew about his wasteful past and threatens to disinherit him in favor of his well-conducted cousin Henry, another Gilbert Denison. After a fainting spell, the elder Denison reveals he will indeed leave Heron Dyke (a Norfolk estate) to his nephew, but with a mysterious proviso in his will—one he believes the young man will initially resent but eventually appreciate. The uncle expresses concern that his nephew's dissolute lifestyle will kill him before thirty, despite the Denisons' reputation for longevity.