Serena Austen's husband frightens her badly and locks her in her room. Escaping, she turns to Henry Gamadge for help. What was in the two books that made her husband so furious?
Poor Gray Austen. Scion of a rich and respectable old New York family, lamed during a heroic wartime action, his first wife had been – well, it was perhaps fortunate that she passed away so soon, the silly little lush. His second wife was another story, for she was intelligent, well-educated, and alas for Captain Austen and his greedy relatives, acquainted with bibliophile detective Henry Gamadge.
When an innocent remark on her part enrages her husband, where else should Serena take refuge but with the Gamadges? Because some very ruthless people with a lot to lose want to find her and make sure she keeps silent.
Elizabeth Daly was born in New York City, the child of a justice on the Supreme Court of New York County and his wife. As a child, she loved games and puzzles, and she went on to become an avid reader of the crime fiction. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College and then earned an M.A. degree from Columbia University. In 1940, at the age of sixty-two, Daly took up writing and published her first novel. She went on to become one of the most prolific crime writers of the 1940s, publishing an additional fifteen mystery novels. All of her books follow the adventures of the same main character, Henry Gamadge. She received an Edgar Award for her body of work. Agatha Christie, whom she greatly admired, declared Daly her favorite American author.
