Chris Mark, an industrialist’s heir, wanted to live like royalty, so he built himself a castle. The 60-year-old heir to the Clayton Mark steel fortune paid for the structure in Woodstock, Connecticut, with family money, and his plan for it was straightforward. He wanted to fill it with women. That premise anchors “The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men,” which is the latest book from British journalist Jon Ronson, who dug into Mark’s world after a chance connection, per Slate. Ronson writes that Mark hoped to document his hunger for a younger, obedient girlfriend on a reality series he planned to call “101 Princesses,” casting himself as the resident lord of the castle. “I’m looking for my queen, and I’ve got 101 princesses to choose from,” Mark is quoted as saying in the book. That chance connection came through Ronson’s own son. Joel, 28, visited the castle with a friend one night and was invited onto the show. He messaged his father to discuss the odd evening. “It’s not a good idea to lure a journalist’s son to a castle,” Ronson writes in the book. He decided to visit the place himself. What Ronson found, he writes, went well beyond eccentric ambition. He alleges that Mark abused several women connected to the castle, both emotionally and sexually, and at times even held them there against their will. He didn’t make the reporting easy, asking Ronson to sign a nondisclosure agreement. The writer refused, saying he had never put his name to one and wasn’t about to begin. Mark then threatened Ronson by saying his friends might come after him. In one exchange, Ronson claims, Mark sent a convicted killer to intimidate him. A writer who explores the masculinity crisis from a different lens “The Castle” is Ronson’s ninth book, and like much of his earlier work, it examines men who feel devalued and adrift in a changing culture. He calls his subjects “men out of time” — referring to men who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, keep pace with the world around them. He says that their lost sense of purpose ultimately curdles into aggression and a drive for control and power. During one of their conversations, Mark claimed that he “adapts” women. When Ronson asked him what that meant, he said that some have never been with another woman, so part of his role was easing them into trying it. “I always thought it would be amazing if I had living here six, eight girls, but the only way it works is if the girls love girls. That’s how the princessing works,” he said, per The Guardian. Mark hasn’t faced any legal repercussions. Ronson reports that a U.S. investigation stalled amid a rise in immigration enforcement, and that Mark left for Argentina, where authorities did look into him but found him “not criminally responsible.” Mark has held onto the castle, and the American inquiry hasn’t closed yet. “The Castle” has already reached No. 1 in the U.K. and it includes more details about Mark, as well as a string of familiar portraits.