The Bittermeads Mystery

The Bittermeads Mystery is a golden age murder mystery, published in 1922. Robert Dunn is a heavily bearded mystery man who's come to the little town of Ramsdon, and in particular to the house called Bittermeads, to try to untease a murderous plot to usurp the inheritance of an ancient title. There he finds the beautiful, aethereal Ella and her psychopathic stepfather Deede Dawson . . . and the corpse of Robert's old friend Charley Wright. At first suspicious of and inclined to kill the newcomer, Dawson eventually trusts him enough -- or seems to trust him enough -- to hire him as gardener, chauffeur and general odd-jobs man. Robert and Ella soon fall in love, of course, even though for a while he suspects her of knowing complicity in her stepfather's crimes. There's more murder, and more feverish misunderstanding, before the truth of the dastardly conspiracy is revealed . .