From “one of the Big Three women detective writers,” a British crime novel featuring an unusual female sleuth investigating murder in an English village (The Observer).
When a dismembered corpse is found hanged in the local butcher shop, no one in the English country village of Wandles Parva is too disturbed to hear the body is Rupert Sethleigh’s. Seems like just desserts for the blackmailing moneylender, which leaves psychoanalyst-turned-sleuth Mrs. Bradley plenty of suspects to muse over. Of course, there’s the matter of the bloodstain on the druid stone in Manor Woods, a place where just about everyone in the village has been spotted as of late. The police, of course, have their own leads, but that only means Mrs. Bradley will have her work cut out for her. Guiding them to the proper clues will prove difficult, because only a mind as brilliant as Mrs. Bradley’s will be able to wade through the red herrings to find the killer.
“A crime writer who, in her day, ranked with Christie and Sayers.” ―Daily Mail
“Extremely well-constructed story of murder and detection . . . Mrs. Bradley is the prize piece.” ―Daily News (New York)
“Gladys Mitchell can always be relied upon for a packed and meaty novel, and an intelligent one at that.” —The Guardian
