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.)