Spooky Hollow

Fleming Stone #15

by Carolyn Wells

Homer Vincent lives in the beautiful house called Greatlarch in New England, with his wife and niece. Though outwardly the family appear to have a charmed life, the house is haunted by an ancient legend. When a harp sounds in the copse known as Spooky Hollow, it is said that a violent death will soon follow. The prophecy comes true when Homer's wife is found murdered in a locked room – but who is to blame for her violent death? Will detective Fleming Stone be able to solve the case? A classic whodunnit from the popular and prolific mystery author Carolyn Wells.-

Genres: Mystery, Classics

245 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Carolyn Wells was a prolific writer for over 40 years and was especially noted for her humor, and she was a frequent contributor of nonsense verse and whimsical pieces to such little magazines as Gelett Burgess' The Lark, the Chap Book, the Yellow Book, and the Philistine.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greatlarch, is the home of Homer Vincent, where he lives with his sister Anne and niece Rosemary. In the grounds is an area called Spooky Hollow, which when a harp is heard coming from it a death will ensue. One evening the family receive a visitor but by morning he has disappeared leaving a dead body behind in a locked room.
An enjoyable and interesting mystery

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Occasionally wordy and florid, never suspenseful, and I spotted the murderer very early on and never doubted my choice.

A mysterious stranger visits a wealthy eccentric's country mansion in Vermont. By next morning, the sister of the owner has been murdered, apparently stabbed inside a locked room; the stranger has vanished, leaving behind his hat and coat (both new, along with all his other clothing); and the sister's large, valuable ruby has also vanished. Suspicion falls in the obvious place, but this Henry Johnson doesn't appear to exist, and efforts to trace him fail.

Meanwhile, there are disturbing revelations about the wealthy eccentric's niece's family background - disturbing, that is, in a time when the elites mostly believed in eugenics, and the possibility that she might be the illegitimate child of an unknown mother rendered her basically a leper. Her suitor, to his great credit, sticks by her regardless, and spends his own money on investigating both her origins and the death of her aunt, to which end he calls in a famous detective (of whose series this book is part). The detective finds the criminal, and it's... exactly who I thought it was all along. I didn't figure out how the locked-room part was done, but I probably should have.

Not a great mystery story, but I've read worse.

[Bruce Small · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally quite interesting, although disconcerting with the emphasis on "the right sort of people." The description of the mansion at the heart of the plot very much reminded me of the Moran mansion at Rosario on Orcas island, including the plate glass windows and huge organ.