Secret Strangeways — Joyce bentley

When pretty Lucy Pitt inherited Strangeways, the sumptuous family mansion in Manchester, she was eager to leave her cloistered teaching position to embark on a new life. She could hardly expect that by picking up the wrong valise as she left the coach she would be plunged into a nightmare of murder and insanity.

What was Deputy Constable Richard Unite's power over the timorous inhabitants of Manchester? What part did the unctuous lawyer, Hezekiah Pike, play in the terrible events that followed? And what was in the red basil books she found in the strange valise that would warrant her death?

Only her awakening love for handsome Dr. Villyers and her need to discover her own courage could make Lucy hold onto her dread inheritance!