Evidence of Things Seen by Ellizabeth Daly

"Mrs. Gamadge, that woman's there again". These are the opening words of this book spoken by the elderly maid, Maggie, to Clara Gamadge. Three times now at sunset, they had seen a woman, wearing a sunbonnet, standing and watching their vacation cottage. The rather isolated cottage had been rented with the plan that Henry Gamadge would return on leave from his war duties (it is 1942), and, even if he didn't, Clara would be joined by their friends, the Herons. Unfortunately the Heron's son had gotten measles, and they had to postpone their arrival for two weeks which meant that Clara and Maggie would be alone in the house. They did have a couple of wealthy and friendly neighbors, Phineas and Fanny Hunter who would be quite helpful as the story progresses.

The cottage had been rented from Miss Radford who owned the farm up the road from the cottage. Miss Radford had lived in the cottage with her sister, but, upon the death of her sister, Miss Radford had moved to the farm. The miserly sister had left Miss Radford one hundred and six thousand dollars in her will which enabled Miss Radford to have a decorator fix up the cottage for summer rental, and also to install a high wire fence around her farm house which was guarded by two dobermans. The decorator had done a good job and Clara was quite pleased overall. At the cottage, two small rooms on the ground floor had been converted to bedrooms. One of these rooms had a door to the outside which had been decommissioned, and the outside knob removed so that no one could enter. This door will play an important part in the book. The  rented cottage was really two houses joined together, and I wish that a drawing of the plan of the house had been included in the book.

Miss Radford had continued to deliver eggs, chickens, and other produce to house. On one of these trips, Miss Radford was in her buggy at the cottage, making a delivery, and suddenly the horse bolted and Miss Radford seemed to be totally terrified. Clare saw that Mrs. Radford had seen the woman in the sunbonnet standing near the cottage. Miss Radford was thrown from the buggy, and injured. Clare and Maggie brought her into the cottage, and put her into the bedroom with the decommissioned door. They took turns watching her during the night, and while Clara was sitting by the bed, Miss Radford was somehow strangled by someone that Clara did not see.

Henry Gamage arrived at the cottage on leave and began a hunt for a ghostly strangler for many in the neighborhood believed that Miss Radford had either been strangled by the ghost of her dead sister, or by Clara in a fit of insanity. Miss Radford's only relatives were Mr. and Mrs. Groby who began a frantic and very thorough search of the farmhouse for Miss Radford's money which seemed to have disappeared. A mysterious neighbor, Gilbert Craye, who had taken in some war refugees, was suspected somehow of playing a part in all of this.

I really enjoyed this book. Elizabeth Daly keeps the suspense going, and the characters are quite sympathetic.  It is said that she was Agatha Christie's favorite American mystery author, and I can see why. I have read very few Elizabeth Daly books, and this one makes me want to read more. This book was published in 1943, and has been reissued by Felony and Mayhem Press.