Search results for ""Author D Erskine Muir""

When wealthy elderly Simon Ewing is found murdered in his flat, it appears to be a robbery gone wrong. Two rings were taken from the dead man's hands, but his hidden jewelery strongbox remained untouched, except for one missing diamond solitaire. An unknown man was spotted exiting the building; there is evidence that he had searched the upper floors before attacking Ewing when the old man was briefly left unattended. But how could an outsider have known when to strike? And why take only one ring from a treasure trove? Superintendent Woods is called in, and through patient careful detection begins slowly to disentangle the clues, as suspicion shifts from one character to the next. This classic detective novel from the 1930s is now republished for the first time.

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Charles was in a vile temper and Anne was catching the full benefit of it. Charles Courtley is a difficult man. Prone to violent outbursts and a bully to his wife and daughters, he has uprooted the family from London to an old manor house in remote East Anglia. Spoilt by his growing wealth and increasingly intolerant of any dissent, Charles enjoys controlling everyone around him. His family, his employees and even the locals - banned from using the traditional footpaths on his forested estate - have multiple reasons to bear a grudge. When Charles is shot dead in a woodland clearing, evidence from an unreliable witness points to Courtley’s secretary, but he has a cast iron alibi and the resulting trial ends in an acquital. A year later, a seemingly innocent death and an odd cenotaph leads Chief Inspector Simon Sturt to reconsider the case. Dorothy Erskine Muir (1889–1977) was one of seventeen children of John Sheepshanks, Bishop of Norwich. She attended Oxford, worked as an academic tutor, and began writing professionally to supplement the family income after the unexpected death of her husband in 1932. Muir published historical biographies and local histories, as well as three accomplished detective novels: In Muffled Night (1933), Five to Five (1934) and In Memory of Charles (1941).

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