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Only the Good,
This is #147 in the Bantam Book collection. Cover art by Bernard Barton. Original edition published in 1942. This edition is complete and unabridged.
From Back Cover: Where there's a will, there's murder!
Especially when the will belongs to a rich, bed-ridden old lady whose granddaughter needs money to finance a very expensive love affair; whose cousin's business isn't going too well; whose great-neice is careless about leaving kitchen knives where anyone can pick them up - and use them.
Especially when the will may make a poor man rich and a rich man richer...and reveal a scandalous secret...
Mary Collins is up to her old tricks, thickening plots and planting clues all over the California countryside.
From Back Cover: Where there's a will, there's murder!
Especially when the will belongs to a rich, bed-ridden old lady whose granddaughter needs money to finance a very expensive love affair; whose cousin's business isn't going too well; whose great-neice is careless about leaving kitchen knives where anyone can pick them up - and use them.
Especially when the will may make a poor man rich and a rich man richer...and reveal a scandalous secret...
Mary Collins is up to her old tricks, thickening plots and planting clues all over the California countryside.
- GenresMystery
250 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1942
7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 12, 2023
Ella Rutledge was a good woman with relatives who put her good nature to the test. She's long known how she wanted to leave her worldly goods, but when a letter arrives she decides to gather the family to Oak Hill "on a matter of business." But a stroke interrupts her plans and before she has a chance to recover both she and her faithful maid Parsons are dead.
Susan is Ella's great-niece, and the only one who really grieves when Ella is poisoned. But, circumstances make it appear that she is also the only one with motive and opportunity to have done the job. Sheriff Atwood doesn't want to believe that Susan is guilty, but the evidence does keep mounting up. Especially when it's discovered that Parsons was richer than you'd expect a lady's maid to be and her will leaves half of everything to Susan. Who would want to frame her if she isn't the culprit? That's what Susan hopes to prove before it's too late.
And, really, there are others who might have wanted Ella Rutledge out of the way before she had the chance to finish her "business." Susan's domineering cousin Bea wouldn't want to lose her place as Ella's heir and her husband, once Susan's fiance, seems eager to believe that Susan is guilty. the Starrs, Will and Mabel, are always on the verge of bankruptcy and had counted on the legacy Ella had always promised them. Except...Ella apparently destroyed her previous will and there's no sign of a new one. Things get really interesting when Susan's estranged mother shows up with a son from her second marriage in tow. And mother dearest hints that she knows a secret or two about the family. Of course, that means she's next on the list of potential murder victims. What secret is worth killing for?
More suspense than detective novel, we spend a great deal of time watching the net draw tighter and tighter around Susan. But there's not an enormous about of actual detective work going on. The sheriff finds himself up against a respected family who won't tell him a thing and it's Susan who keeps discovering clues. Ultimately, there's not enough proof to accuse the guilty party, so Susan winds up the bait in a trap to catch the killer. But...I do like the set up and the characters of Susan and Ella (a shame that Ella has to be killed for the plot). And I enjoyed it a great deal more than the first Collins book I read (Dead Center) back in 2010 when My Reader's Block was just a baby blog and I'd just started reviewing what I read.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Susan is Ella's great-niece, and the only one who really grieves when Ella is poisoned. But, circumstances make it appear that she is also the only one with motive and opportunity to have done the job. Sheriff Atwood doesn't want to believe that Susan is guilty, but the evidence does keep mounting up. Especially when it's discovered that Parsons was richer than you'd expect a lady's maid to be and her will leaves half of everything to Susan. Who would want to frame her if she isn't the culprit? That's what Susan hopes to prove before it's too late.
And, really, there are others who might have wanted Ella Rutledge out of the way before she had the chance to finish her "business." Susan's domineering cousin Bea wouldn't want to lose her place as Ella's heir and her husband, once Susan's fiance, seems eager to believe that Susan is guilty. the Starrs, Will and Mabel, are always on the verge of bankruptcy and had counted on the legacy Ella had always promised them. Except...Ella apparently destroyed her previous will and there's no sign of a new one. Things get really interesting when Susan's estranged mother shows up with a son from her second marriage in tow. And mother dearest hints that she knows a secret or two about the family. Of course, that means she's next on the list of potential murder victims. What secret is worth killing for?
More suspense than detective novel, we spend a great deal of time watching the net draw tighter and tighter around Susan. But there's not an enormous about of actual detective work going on. The sheriff finds himself up against a respected family who won't tell him a thing and it's Susan who keeps discovering clues. Ultimately, there's not enough proof to accuse the guilty party, so Susan winds up the bait in a trap to catch the killer. But...I do like the set up and the characters of Susan and Ella (a shame that Ella has to be killed for the plot). And I enjoyed it a great deal more than the first Collins book I read (Dead Center) back in 2010 when My Reader's Block was just a baby blog and I'd just started reviewing what I read.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
October 20, 2011
Susan Brooks' beloved great aunt Ella is very sick. When Ella's devoted maid disappears, Susan knows that something is wrong. But she doesn't expect to find the maid's body, or become the leading suspect in the case that shadows the beautiful old mansion called Oak Hill. And she doesn't expect the mother who abandoned her to Ella as an infant to reappear in her life either. Collins wrote several really entertaining books, but is almost forgotten now.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews