Cornelia Lackland's tyranical rule over her step-granddaughters, Carol and Jenny, is the talk of Minsterbridge. Their grandmother's control over the family fortune means that she has absolute say in Carol and Jenny's affairs - that is if they do not wish to be cut off without a penny. When Cornelia recovers from a long illness only to be poisoned the very night before she was due to change her will, the attentions of Scotland Yard, in the form of Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe, turn naturally to the lady's granddaughters. But Pardoe soon finds that affairs at Lacklands are more complex than they at first appear...
Originally published in 1938, this novel, which introduces Dorothy Bowers's series detective Dan Pardoe, is a classic British murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction.