A Search for a Secret

An Heiress Searches for a Hidden Will. Agnes Ashleigh inherits the estate of Gerald Harmer, but his two sisters conceal the secret of his lost will and determine to give the estate to the Catholic Church. Ultimately, after much intrigue and action, the will is found and the efforts of the sisters thwarted. G. A. Henty's commercial popularity encouraged other writers to try writing juvenile adventure stories in his style; "Herbert Strang", Henry Everett McNeil, Percy F. Westerman and Captain Frederick Sadleir Brereton all wrote novels in "the Henty tradition", often incorporating then-contemporary themes such as aviation and First World War combat. By the 1930s, however, interest in Henty's work was declining in Britain, and hence few children's writers there looked to his work as a model. The Henty series was part of F. Scott Fitzgerald's boyhood reading.