Deadly Legacy // Murder at Larkfield Barn — Betty Rowlands

Women in the quiet Cotswold town of Stowbridge are living in fear of a sex strangler. At the same time, surrounding villages are suffering a spate of burglaries, one of which leads to the death of Gloucestershire's most prolific novelist, Leonora Jewell. Crime-writer Melissa Craig is persuaded to complete Jewell's unfinished novel and soon has reason to believe that the author's death was not, as at first supposed, accidental.

Clues in the script suggest a motive for murder and Melissa decides to do a little sleuthing of her own. Why does Leonora's executor, who is also her godson, seem so unco-operative? How did the murder weapon manage to disappear before the police could retrieve it? Could Leonora's researches into jiggery-pokery in the art world have made her a threat to someone? And if so, has Melissa put herself at risk by stepping into her shoes?

As the intrepid writer pieces together the clues and stumbles across another twist in Leonora's novel, Stowbridge's mysterious crime-wave takes another bizarre tum before coming to a surprising conclusion.