The Dangerous Dead — William Brandon

Mr. Bowler needed help. His insane wife had died - leaving a cool half million - and Mr. Bowler had secretly married Molly, his pretty, black-haired housemaid. All of which was very well, except that the Molly business was a direct violation of his dead wife's will, and if it came to light, Mr. Bowler stood to do himself out of a nice inheritance. And here was Mrs. Spang, the first Mrs. Bowler's sister, come to visit. Mrs. Spang - she of the prying nose and ultra-suspicious mind! A situation ripe for blackmail? Mr. Bowler thought so, and that's why he invited Sam Ireland, private detective, up to his snow-blanketed Vermont estate. But when Ireland arrived, he found stranger things than blackmail to test his investigative wits: Mrs. Spang's professed ability to talk with the dead, for instance; the mystery of rifle shots in the night, and the behaviour of lovely, red-headed Anice Doyle - another of Mr. Bowler's guests - who drank with roughnecks, held hands with the hired man and drew to an inside straight. . . . That it should all lead to murder was inevitable, and Ireland was only surprised by the fact that the murder - or murders, maybe - had been committed almost a year before!