Bait on the Hook — Frank Parrish

The lean English poacher and con man Dan Mallett is known to the local constabulary as the biggest villain unhung, and to local girls as an expert lover. A nocturnal rendezvous at Medwell Old Hall lands Dan in an awkward position when an intruder is mysteriously murdered there while Dan and a pretty babysitter are otherwise engaged. Knowing that the police will not view his unauthorized presence at the Hall in a sympathetic light, and ruthlessly blackmailed by Anna, the babysitter's diminutive charge, Dan, accompanied by the gleeful, deplorable Anna, scouts the countryside for the murderer, whom he lures into a subtle trap in a breathtaking climax.