Murder at Shots Hall

Also published as Green December Fills the Graveyard.

Inspector Lane Parry mysteries - #1 The lovely mistress of a bombed Sussex Manor house is accused of murder most foul. Flikka Ashley and her aunt, Bee Chattock, live in the portion of Shots Hall that survived German bombs. Flik is a sculptor and goes to her studio to work in the evenings. She always checks in with the housekeeper, Molly Pritchard, as she goes to the studio. One night on her way home she notices Molly's light still on, goes in and finds Molly dead. She's seen plenty of bodies before, having been an ambulance driver during the Blitz. Immediately she suspects murder and calls the police. First to deal with the case is the unpleasant Detective Sargent Arnoldson, who suspects Flikka almost immediately. Fortunately Deputy Chief Constable Mahew asks Inspector Lane Parry of Scotland Yard to take over the case. In this small village, people are used to their routines. Murder throws them hopelessly off. They are even more unsettled when Old Marsh, who owns the pub, is murdered with the same arsenic used to poison Molly. [From http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=3129 ]