Criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein return to their investigation of a toxic love triangle which culminated in the mysterious murder of Yorkshire farm owner Frederick Morton.

Yorkshire, 1933, at 3am on a September morning. A mother, her daughter and the child’s nanny left their farmhouse to find that their barn was ablaze. The farm owner, 30-year-old Frederick Morton, was nowhere to be seen. The fire brigade and police attended and the fire was extinguished, but later that morning in the ruins of the barn, the charred remains of Frederick Morton were discovered. A post mortem revealed he had been shot.

Suspicion soon fell on 35-year-old farm employee Ernest Brown, who had recently been demoted from groom to an odd job man. He was accused of shooting Frederick Morton when he had arrived home the evening before, then setting the barn on fire to cover up the crime. At trial, the explosive revelation that Ernest Brown had been having an affair with his boss’s wife Dorothy behind the farm owner’s back caused a sensation – especially as Mrs Morton was a key witness for the prosecution. The motive was said to be love and revenge, yet by the time of the murder, Ernest Brown and Mrs Morton’s affair was over, and he was said to be happy with his new role at the farm.

Two generations on, Clare, a descendent of Ernest Brown’s cousin, along with her son Archie, hoped to discover the truth behind Frederick Morton’s death and whether their ancestor might have been innocent. They called on the barristers to see if they could shed new light on the evidence and persuade Judge Radford that Ernest Brown’s conviction was unsafe.

Now a year on from their detailed review of the case, Jeremy and Sasha meet up once again with Clare, who remains unable to accept her ancestor's conviction. Can an enlightening encounter with a local who met Ernest Brown, and the theory of a modern day crime writer, shed new light upon the case? Show less