Dorothy Bowers – författare

“Do you think it’s a secret that you are slowly poisoning Mrs Lackland?”When Dr Tom Faithful received the third anonymous letter, he knew it was time to call the police. The wealthy Mrs Cornelia Lackland was recovering steadily from a serious illness, diligently cared for by the doctor, family members and her household staff. But something is amiss in Minsterbridge. Mrs Lackland rules her house with an iron fist, keeping granddaughters Jenny and Carol as virtual prisoners and bullying her attendant Emily Bullen. Scornful and dismissive of everyone, she is planning to make one final change to her will. But before she can meet her solicitor Cornelia Lackland is dead, the apparent victim of a poisoner.As Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe of Scotland Yard and his colleague Sergeant Salt investigate, they find motives for murder much broader than first anticipated. This is a town where everybody’s business is known by everyone else. Pardoe is a satisfying and likeable creation, described by a Sunday Times reviewer as having ‘humanity and common sense as impressive as his intelligence’.Dorothy Bowers was an advocate of the ‘fair play’ school of detective novels, and displayed great ingenuity in piecing together the necessary elements of a baffling mystery, with clues shared freely with the reader. When Inspector Pardoe indicates he knows who the murderer is, the reader knows virtually everything he does. Bower’s great skill is in obscuring her characters' motives, while writing perceptively about their feelings and situation, which allows her to hide the identity of the murderer until exactly the right moment.

Former governess Emma Betony is living in quiet and boring retirement when two unexpected letters arrive.  The first is a lonely hearts magazine, with an entry(“Lonely Batchelor, age 49, good health, comfortable income, seeks friendship of unattached lady with view to matrimony”) highlighted by the anonymous sender.   The second is an appeal for help from a former student.   Grace Aram is running Makeways, a struggling boarding school for girls, newly relocated to a site of former nursing home in Dorset.  Grace isn’t interested in Miss Betony’s teaching skills—she wants a trusted friend to help identify the culprit behind a series of troubling events.  Two nursing patients have remained at Makeways and one appears to be the victim of a poisoner.  It is not clear who could be responsible for the ongoing trickle of arsenic found in Miss Thurloe’s drinks- the new abrasive doctor, the pragmatic nurse, the nervous teaching staff or the high-strung students.  During her investigations, Miss Betony uncovers an overwhelming sense of fear on the part of Makeways’ inhabitants, and clues that lead to the Great Ambrosio, a charismatic fortune-teller, who seems to have an undue influence on various teachers, students –  and Miss Thurloe.First published in 1941, Fear and Miss Betony marks the final appearance of Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe—but it is Miss Betony herself who fights through fear and solves the case. Contemporary critics proclaimed the book an instant classic, with an ingenious plot.

It won’t be much longer now. Keep your head and hold your tongue.”In Shadows Before, events from the past are the catalyst for murder.  In hope of a fresh start after being acquitted of the murder of his sister-in-law, Matthew Weir has moved his family to Spanwater, a remote manor in the Cotswolds. But his heiress wife Catherine is traumatised by her sister’s death and Matthew’s trial, and has retreated into childhood memories, believing she is living in the Welsh border cottage of her childhood.  Hired to keep Catherine safe in her wanderings, companion Aurelia Brett is fleeing poverty and hunger in London,  Matthew’s brother Augustus is trying to elude past debts. His nephew is haunted by the death of his father. Then Catherine dies suddenly, and arsenic is found in her home-made tea.  Evidence suggests someone in the house, but Chief Inspector Pardoe finds conflicting clues and suspicious behaviour among Spanwater’s neighbours too.   When a second death occurs, Pardoe  – and the reader – must decide which shadows points to the perpetrator and why.Dorothy Bowers (1902 – 1948) was a champion of “fair play” mysteries, in which all the clues are cunningly displayed within the context of the story.

It was not until the fifth death in Long Greeting that Miss Tidy made up her mind to go to the police. It was not a sense of civic duty that compelled her but the arrival of two letters that made it clear her life was in danger. The local villagers had been agitated for months over whether the seemingly unconnected deaths were the suicides they appeared to be. Better to say nothing of her intentions though, not even to her immediate circle: the staff of the Minerva hat shop who worked for her, or Léonie, her old Breton maid. Nor would she mention the letters to her interested neighbours or the rector, who had buried four of the victims, or even to Owen Greatorex, the novelist of international reputation, who seemed disarmingly gentle. For who was to be trusted?Scotland Yard is soon on the scene but more deaths occur before Detective-Inspector Raikes puts the pieces together.Dorothy Bowers (1902–48) was a champion of “fair play” mysteries, in which all the clues are cunningly displayed within the story. She combined a satirist's eye (particularly for village life) with a penetrating view of character. A master of the red herring, The Bells at Old Bailey (1947) was her fifth and last novel. Bowers died in 1948 from tuberculosis, having been inducted the prestigious Detection Club a few months earlier.

“My accidents can’t be accidental.  Very well, there’s only one thing they can be–and that’s attempted murder.”Archy Mitfold had always loved a mystery, but he never expected to take the lead role in a thriller. Yet there was no doubt in his mind that someone was trying to kill him. First there was the narrow miss on Trumpeter’s Row, where a car accelerated straight at him. Then there were the chocolates Archy received on his birthday—with an unsigned card—that made him ill. Most recent was the sharp push in the back that almost sent him sprawling in front of an oncoming commuter train.  What does Archy know that someone is willing to kill for? And does the recent kidnapping of millionaire Sampson Vick have anything to do with his accidents? Or is all this just the sign of self-absorbed and histrionic young man? Before long, Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe is called to investigate and untangles more than one mystery in the process.A Deed Without a Name has a well-realised and atmospheric setting during England’s “phony war” period in 1939.