Rupert Sethleigh was a blackmailing moneylender whom many people in the village of Wandles Parva would be happy to see dead, so there are no mourners when his headless, dismembered body is found in the local butcher’s shop. Mrs. Beatrice Bradley, newly arrived in the village, finds the affair a pretty puzzle indeed, with the evidence pointing every which way and most of the suspects far more likable than the victim. Further, it seems that half the village was wandering about Manor Woods, the scene of the crime, the night the squire was murdered. Mrs. Bradley ruthlessly uses the local constabulary to glean information for her, befriends the young people in the village, eliminates one red herring after another, and leads the reader on a merry chase until the final surprising solution. Reportedly written as an affectionate sendup of an Agatha Christie novel, it’s also a splendid example in its own right of the classical prewar English village mystery, complete with an imposing manor house, a comical vicar, attractive young lovers, and a brilliant—indeed, infallible—amateur sleuth. The author’s second book, it was originally published in 1930 at the height of the Golden Age of detective fiction.

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