Wood: Murder of a Novelist

Miss Ann Thorne, aristocratic New England spinster, finds the body of her offensive neighbor, a fourth-rate novelist, in her formal garden, his skull cracked. Ann is forced to investigate when the sheriff focuses on a former paramour, but is the killer one of her neighbors, or even one of her family? This book contains a cast of characters whose personalities are as interesting as the puzzle itself and of these, Miss Ann Thorne is most memorable. 

Review

(1941) "This is an elegant yarn that will delight the discriminating."