Fear For Miss Betony by Dorothy Bowers
Emma Betony comes to the aid of a former pupil, Grace Aram, who is running a struggling boarding school for girls. Grace needs someone she can trust to expose the culprit behind a series of troubling events."The best detective story of the year so far", The Times Literary Supplement, November 1941
* The Times Literary Supplement *In a subdued manner, an impressively clever job, with a perfect integration of crime, backgrounds, and characterization which gets its psychological dueThe London Times heralds it as “the best detective story of the year” – some American readers may find it a little British for general taste here though connoisseurs will cherish it. How Emma Betony, a gentle, stubborn retired governess accepts a post as teacher from a former charge, in an old house which is part nursing home, part school. When attempts on the lives of one of the inmates and the pervading hypnotist and murder combine to force an issue, Miss Betony gather the data for Scotland Yard’s solution. Good going.
* Kirkus Reviews *Elderly ugly spinsters of humble birth are coming into their own. What endearing heroines they make has been proved before by detective stories and now Miss Dorothy Bowers wins our glowing admiration for one who is saved from becoming a decayed gentlewoman in an almshouse solely because her father was a greengrocer. “Fear for Miss Betony” is the best detective story of the year so far. The crime is cleverly committed and cleverly detected but that is not all. Besides providing all that is usually asked of this this kind of fiction, the author makes her characters as interesting for their own sake as novelists untrammelled by the shackles of mystery would. The house, part school, part nursing home, where the fear lurks is haunted by ghosts who are sound psychologically. Every page bears witness to a brain of uncommon powers.
* The Times Literary Supplement *"Fear for Miss Betony" is a good mystery story with very ingenious complications, gaining ironical spice from the fact that Miss Betony, who plays a leading part in unravelling the mystery, was, at the age of 61, on the point of retiring into a Home for Decayed Gentlewomen.
-- Charles Mariott * The Manchester Guardian *DOROTHY BOWERS (1902-1948) was a champion of "fair play" mysteries in which all the clues are cunningly displayed within the story. The daughter of a bakery owner, she attended Oxford university, and later became a History teacher, supplementing her income by compiling crossword puzzles. A member of the Detection Club, Bowers wrote five crime thrillers before her early death from tuberculosis.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781899000098 |
| ISBN 10 | 1899000097 |
| Title | Fear For Miss Betony |
| Author | Dorothy Bowers |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Moonstone Press |
| Year published | 2019-01-01 |
| Number of pages | 253 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |