Fear For Miss Betony

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 ("e;Lonely Batchelor, age 49, good health, comfortable income, seeks friendship of unattached lady with view to matrimony"e;) 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.