Cover of Darkness — Lorena Ann Olmstead

Ronald Gresham's return home after his stint in the service and a vacation abroad should have been a happy occasion. But over the event hunt the pall of his brother's recent death in a mysterious flying accident. And beyond that there was the secret worry that had taken hold of his father. Whatever it was, Mr. Gresham was waiting only for Ronald's homecoming to reveal it -- and as he watched him fretting and wasting away. Joan Norvalle, Mr. Gresham's lovely ward, prayed that that homecoming would be soon.

More than being relieved when Ronald did return -- for surely he would know what to do about his father and the anxiety rankling in him -- Joan was deeply thrilled. For after his extended absence Ronald was seeing the new Joan -- the charming, lovely young woman who had been an awkward love-struck kid when Ronald had last seen her. In his reaction to the change, Ronald was not at all disappointing.

But the next morning tragedy again struck, in the death of kindly Mr. Gresham -- and there was no question but that it was murder. And there seemed little doubt that there was a connection with the still-untold secret he had harbored. But who of the houseful of near and distant relatives and servants -- all of whom benefited by Mr. Gresham's death -- knew what that secret was?

Together Joan and Ronald decided to find out -- to the great peril of both of them!