Murder is Easy

First published in 1939, this detective novel begins on a train when retired policeman Luke Fitzwilliam meets the elderly Lavinia Pinkerton, who is going to Scotland Yard because, she says, a series of deaths in the village of Wychwood-under-Ashe were not accidents. After she is killed in a street accident, Luke goes to Wychwood as a visitor, posing as a writer, and finds more deaths among a closed circle of gentry, doctors, and dependents. Bridget Conway, secretary at the manor, becomes his ally. The puzzle is who benefits from so many 'easy' murders and whether one mind is tidying the village. The book is a village serial-murder mystery without Poirot or Marple.

Three-quarter bound in black cloth with blocked spine title, front cover printed and blocked with a colour picture on textured paper. Light blue endpapers. Plain slipcase.