The Footsteps That Stopped — A.E. Fielding

The Footsteps That Stopped, first published in 1926, is a classic British 'golden-age' murder mystery. The book, authored by A. E. Fielding (whose real identity remains itself somewhat of a mystery), features Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Pointer who is called in to investigate the death of Mrs. Tangye on her estate. The woman was discovered sitting beside her tea-table, with a bullet wound to her heart caused by her World War I service revolver found lying on the floor nearby. Initially thought to be suicide or a tragic accident, Pointer determines that, in fact, the death was a case of murder.