When the novelist Harper Lee died in her sleep two years ago, at 89, she left a trail of lingering questions about her life and work.

Why had she decided, in her final years, to publish a second novel, 55 years after her breakout success, “To Kill a Mockingbird”? Were there other unknown works? Who would inherit her literary papers, sought by many universities, as well as her estate, estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars?

On Tuesday, an Alabama court unsealed Ms. Lee’s will, but the mystery surrounding one of American literature’s most cherished authors only deepened.