The Strawstack Murders

The thrilling story of The Strawstack Murders (also known as Strawstack) takes place in a fashionable Maryland town just fifteen miles from Washington. There Margaret Tilbury, a wealthy and keen Vermont spinster (a “stoutish woman of uncertain age”—as she will describe herself), purchases an estate where she expects to settle down to a life of luxury and contentment. One night, however, the strawstacks next to the stables are set on fire, and protruding from one of them is the gloved hand of a murdered girl. With Miss Tilbury and her family the reader is plunged into a series of crimes and non-stop action that won’t let out until the very end. Unlike many of the mystery stories of the time, Strawstack avoids devices that may become annoying: There is no omniscient detective, no long, boring, repetitious interviews with servants, no scientific tests and experts, and, best of all, no complicated, confusing house or room plans. The Strawstack Murders is just a plain good mystery, just as good as Disney’s previous novel Death in the Back Seat.