The Purple Sickle Murders — Freeman Wills Crofts

One girl was found dead in a quarry pit. One girl's body was picked up at sea. Still another girl, though warned and protected by the police, vanished completely!Small wonders that Inspector French looked worried-not simply because he had come to admire plucky Molly Moran, but because for once he had met a game that was beating him. Three pretty girls-two murdered, one vanished-and all of them had been cinema cashiers. What was the game whose price was death? Was it Dope? Blackmail? Where would it end, and where was the beginning?Thurza Drake, a young, naive box office worker, is slowly drawn into a scheme after being approached by another woman on her bus route asking if she would like to make some extra money gambling. Drake doesn't like being a part of the scam, but it's not hurting anybody. Until one of her fellow box office girls is found dead, strangled, and drowned horribly. Now Drake is afraid, terribly afraid, and contacts Inspector French.