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).
