Dr. Kathleen Freeman, die jarenlang als docent Grieks werkte aan de University of Wales in Cardiff, schreef haar misdaadromans onder het pseudoniem Mary Fitt. Haar werk kenmerkt zich door scherp inzicht in de menselijke psychologie en een meesterlijke verweving van complexe plots, wat lezers diep boeiende mysteries biedt.
On the eve of her adored adopted daughter Augusta's twenty-first birthday, and after bullying her harpist Tenella, and telling her great nephew Palin a family secret so dreadful he leaves Tristowell Castle and goes straight down a pothole, old Lady Elizabeth Carn is found securely and determinedly strangled. All sorts of developments in every direction occur, with some thumping subterranean scenes. Inspector Mallet investigates.
Christabel Strange, a highly successful young novelist, is taken ill and dies a year before the story begins. It was her wish that her biography should be written by her friend Marcia Wentworth; but inexplicably, she bequeathed her diaries to her wily, eccentric grandmother, who loathes Marcia and refuses to allow her to see them. Dr. George Cardew, Christabel's childhood friend, arriving at the house (which according to Christabel's will, is being shared by Marcia), finds himself between opposing and bitterly hostile camps, for the family are at loggerheads with Marcia. He begins to wonder why Christabel behaved in such a peculiar way, and whether her death was really due to a fever. The possibility of foul play becomes a certainty when another murder takes place and a volume of the diary is stolen. Gradually Dr. Cardew pieces together the clues to Christabel's hidden life, but it is not until there has been further violence that he is able to identify the murderer and the reason for the original crime.
The story retraces over the years and the generations of his family, the slow sequence of events that led to the death of Robert, and to the insertion in the local paper of the three separate notices of his Requiem that aroused firstly to benevolent interest and later to intense activity, Inspector Mallett and his companion of old Dr. Fitzbrown.
Simon Gabb had everything - or so it seemed: a beautiful house, a big estate, a flourishing business and two sons, both endowed with evident capacity. When one is murdered, the solution of the case is as much a study in relationships as in crime.
'Is it wise to evoke these memories--to raise these ghosts--after all these years? After attending a burial in an old country churchyard, Superintendent Mallett and his friends are struck by the sight of two elderly ladies, regally dressed in black and accompanied by their uniformed chauffeur, placing an elaborate wreath on the graveyard's most imposing monument. The vicar confirms that the Misses de Boulter of Chetwode Lodge have placed a fresh wreath on their father's and brother's tomb every week for the last fifty years. In the opposite corner of the churchyard lies the small neglected grave of Mary Dazill. In flashbacks, we learn how everything goes wrong in the lives of two sisters when their father brings the enigmatic Mary Dazill home and proposes to marry her. Soon, murder ensues. A fatalistic mystery with the emotional echoes of a Greek tragedy.
When Ullstone Hall is passed to the unknown son from a first marriage, the new heir Hugo finds love and hate among the residents; a situation that builds rapidly to murder.
When Claribel organizes a 'murder game' at her annual New Year's Eve party, all sorts of unexpected things occur. An unusual 1936 crime novel by the incomparable Mary Fitt.
In this book Clan MacWee (the smallest clan in Scotland) try everything they can to make themselves grow taller but will they be better off this way?
Clan MacBleat are totally devoted to their flock; however the sheep tend to get into all kinds of trouble giving the clan a real dilemma!