Description
Former governess Emma Betony is living in quiet and boring retirement when two unexpected letters arrive. The first is a lonely hearts magazine, with an entry
("Lonely Batchelor, age 49, good health, comfortable income, seeks friendship of unattached lady with view to matrimony") highlighted by the anonymous sender. The second is an appeal for help from a former student. Grace Aram is running Makeways, a struggling boarding school for girls, newly relocated to a site of former nursing home in Dorset. Grace isn't interested in Miss Betony's teaching skills-she wants a trusted friend to help identify the culprit behind a series of troubling events. Two nursing patients have remained at Makeways and one appears to be the victim of a poisoner. It is not clear who could be responsible for the ongoing trickle of arsenic found in Miss Thurloe's drinks- the new abrasive doctor, the pragmatic nurse, the nervous teaching staff or the high-strung students. During her investigations, Miss Betony uncovers an overwhelming sense of fear on the part of Makeways' inhabitants, and clues that lead to the Great Ambrosio, a charismatic fortune-teller, who seems to have an undue influence on various teachers, students - and Miss Thurloe.
First published in 1941, Fear and Miss Betony marks the final appearance of Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe-but it is Miss Betony herself who fights through fear and solves the case. Contemporary critics proclaimed the book an instant classic, with an ingenious plot.
About the Author
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.
Reviews
"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 due. The 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 *Book Information
ISBN 9781899000098
Author Dorothy Bowers
Format Paperback
Page Count 253
Imprint Moonstone Press
Publisher Moonstone Press
