Beware of the Dog

One inheritance plus two heirs adds up to murder in a Golden Age–style mystery that critics say is "reminiscent of Dame Agatha Christie."Nice old Helen Lovelace has passed on to her just reward, so it's not surprising that her two young heirs have arrived to pick up the tasty inheritance that they expect to split. What is perhaps surprising is that their arrival is followed by another death: one of the heirs is murdered in her bed, and her cousin, Nicholas, looks a good bet for having pulled the trigger.Mrs. Lovelace's housekeeper, however, has long had a soft spot for Nicholas, and she implores a neighbor—Virginia Freer, as it happens—to poke around and perhaps find another suspect. Virginia, happy to help, calls in her secret weapon: Her former husband, Felix, may be a bounder, a cad, a liar, and a thief, but he does have a knack for finding bad guys.