Only the Good

 Only the Good (1942) by Mary Collins

Ella Rutledge was a good woman with relatives who put her good nature to the test. She's long known how she wanted to leave her worldly goods, but when a letter arrives she decides to gather the family to Oak Hill "on a matter of business." But a stroke interrupts her plans and before she has a chance to recover both she and her faithful maid Parsons are dead. 

Susan is Ella's great-niece, and the only one who really grieves when Ella is poisoned. But, circumstances make it appear that she is also the only one with motive and opportunity to have done the job. Sheriff Atwood doesn't want to believe that Susan is guilty, but the evidence does keep mounting up. Especially when it's discovered that Parsons was richer than you'd expect a lady's maid to be and her will leaves half of everything to Susan. Who would want to frame her if she isn't the culprit? That's what Susan hopes to prove before it's too late.

And, really, there are others who might have wanted Ella Rutledge out of the way before she had the chance to finish her "business." Susan's domineering cousin Bea wouldn't want to lose her place as Ella's heir and her husband, once Susan's fiance, seems eager to believe that Susan is guilty. the Starrs, Will and Mabel, are always on the verge of bankruptcy and had counted on the legacy Ella had always promised them. Except...Ella apparently destroyed her previous will and there's no sign of a new one. Things get really interesting when Susan's estranged mother shows up with a son from her second marriage in tow. And mother dearest hints that she knows a secret or two about the family. Of course, that means she's next on the list of potential murder victims. What secret is worth killing for?

More suspense than detective novel, we spend a great deal of time watching the net draw tighter and tighter around Susan. But there's not an enormous about of actual detective work going on. The sheriff finds himself up against a respected family who won't tell him a thing and it's Susan who keeps discovering clues. Ultimately, there's not enough proof to accuse the guilty party, so Susan winds up the bait in a trap to catch the killer. But...I do like the set up and the characters of Susan and Ella (a shame that Ella has to be killed for the plot). And I enjoyed it a great deal more than the first Collins book I read (Dead Center) back in 2010 when My Reader's Block was just a baby blog. ★★★

First line: "Oak Hill is the most beautiful old house in California..."

Last line: And after the proper interval following my marriage to Joe next spring, I hope very much that Oak Hill's rooms will be filled with cries and laughter of new young lives that will surely drive out the ghosts of old, unhappy ones.

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Deaths =  11 (one in the war; two drowned; two stabbed; one poisoned; three natural; one car accident; one shot)