In a small English town, family conflict can be murder...

Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club

When spinster Emily Foss, who ran the haberdashery, is found bludgeoned to death, the silver pencil that had surely been in her purse that night is found in brash young Lennie Hunter's possession, and it is he who is to be hanged for the crime.

To clear his name, Hunter's fiancée brings in Detective Arthur Crook. Soon Crook discovers Emily was not on good terms with her nephew, his wife, or many others in the small English town where she lived. Faced with a maze of hidden motives, Crook must contrive against the clock to trap the real murderer.

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