An example of early drawing room detective fiction that is enjoyable both in its own right, and as a study in the development of the genre on the other (ie Western) side of the Atlantic. Green’s first-person narrator/sleuth is a kind of middle-aged proto-feminist who slips in and out of the archetype of the Meddling Spinster, by turns slightly heroic and slightly absurd. As a police procedural it’s hard to take seriously, but it’s good fun. Although Agatha Christie is said to have been inspired by Amelia Butterworth to create Miss Marple, I think any comparisons between the two say less about the similarity of the characters (who aren’t really much alike at all), and more about society’s conflation of older unmarried women. Recommended for those who loved The Moonstone.