Peter has only a month before the new law sessions when a new trial will
happen... So he and his organisation have to work fast. He and his friend Marjorie Phelps, an artist,
conduct researches in Bohemian London, to find out more about Philip
Boyes. He was the son of a clergyman
with many respectable middle class relatives, such as his cousin Norman
Urquhart... a solicitor who had offered him a home after he split up with
Harriet.. but who was not willing to help him financially. Peter attends a party in Bohemia where he talks to some of Philip's friends.
Peter manages to get one of the
women who works for him into a post as legal clerk in Urquhart’s office. He discovers that Philip had an elderly
great aunt, a former actress who was very rich. And that she’s living in the
country, a helpless invalid. He sends
Miss Climpson, his chief detective, to her home town to try and find a way of
getting into her house.
In spite of the serious nature of the case, the book has a lot of comic
bits and Miss Climpson’s befriending of the old lady’s nurse is very
amusing. She finds out that the woman
believes in Spiritualism and uses this to find the woman’s will.
Miss Climpson is voluble and very religious but she quite enjoys using
her wits to find out things, using deception and guile. She has to pretend to be a medium, and use an Ouija board. Joan Murcheson, another
of the detective ladies, uses her job in Urquhart’s office to find out more
about him... and they realise that Norman Urquhart had a big motive to kill
Phillip Boyes…
The snag is that it seems that Norman shared Philip's last meal..
and ate the same food….Now if I explain how it was all done.. it would be a spoiler and ruin the book!!!
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