Death Comes to the School

In the English village of Kurland St. Mary few things are worse than having ones reputation besmirched. A struggling marriage is one. Murder is another . . . Three years have passed since Major Sir Robert Kurland and Lucy Harrington the rector''s daughter became husband and wife. Having established a measure of contentment among the local gentry the couple lately have found an unsettling distance grown between them. But when the small-village peace is disrupted by an anonymous letter accusing Lucy of witchcraft her as yet unfulfilled desire to be a mother becomes the least of her worries especially after she learns she is not the only one to have received such a malicious letter. Speculation only escalates when the village schoolteacher Miss Broomfield is discovered murdered at her classroom desk. Was the unlikeable teacher the letter writer and if so who killed her and why? Despite her husbands objections Lucy offers to help out at the school until a replacement can be found hoping the children might inadvertently reveal a clue but by doing so she may be putting her own life at risk . . .