The Castleford Conundrum

"One of the very best of the Connington country house mysteries . . . is The Castleford Conundrum. In this tale the author does an extremely effective job of portraying an odious, stupid woman, Winifred Castleford, and her detestable, sponging in-laws. Even her seemingly sympathetic second husband, Philip Castleford, is offhandedly dismissed with contempt by Clinton Driffield as a cringing weakling. Only Philip's daughter (and Winifred's stepdaughter), Hillary, is portrayed by the author with real sympathy. If one desires to read a novel with a houseful of scheming, contemptible relations and a cleverly arranged murder of the one person with all the money-and what fan of classical English mystery does not-one could not do better than to choose The Castleford Conundrum." (From the Introduction.)