''The Castleford Conundrum'' is a 1932

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...

by the British author

Alfred Walter Stewart Alfred Walter Stewart (5 September 1880 – 1 July 1947) was a British chemist and part-time novelist who wrote seventeen detective novels and a pioneering science fiction work between 1923 and 1947 under the pseudonym of JJ Connington. He creat ...

, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington. It is the eighth in his series of novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield, the Chief Constable of a rural English county.Reilly p.346 It makes passing reference to one of the earlier stories '' Mystery at Lynden Sands''.

Synopsis

The young Mrs Castleford holds the purse strings over her husband, half-sister,

stepdaughter A stepchild is the offspring of one's spouse, but not one's own offspring, either biologically or through adoption. Stepchildren can come into a family in a variety of ways. A stepchild may be the child of one's spouse from a previous relationshi ...

and former brothers-in-law due to the wealth she inherited from her late first husband. When she is found shot dead on a

chalet A chalet (pronounced in British English; in American English usually ), also called Swiss chalet, is a type of building or house, typical of the Alpine region in Europe. It is made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well-su ...

on the edge of her

country estate An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which generates income for its owner. British context In the United Kingdom, historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, tenanted buildings, and ...

Inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia The rank of Inspector is present in all Australian police forces excep ...

Westerham is called in to investigate. He discovers the deceased had recently destroyed her first will and was in the process of replacing it with a second, favouring her brothers-in-law rather than her current husband for whom she had grown contemptuous. Gradually the Inspectors suspicions point towards the lady's husband, and out-of-work

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

. However an appeal by the accused's daughter to Sir Clinton Driffield's friend Wendover brings them both on to the case.

References

Bibliography

* Barzun, Jacques & Taylor, Wendell Hertig. ''A Catalogue of Crime''. Harper & Row, 1989. * Evans, Curtis. ''Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, 1920-1961''. McFarland, 2014. * Hubin, Allen J. ''Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography''. Garland Publishing, 1984. *Murphy, Bruce F. ''The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery''. Springer, 1999. * Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015. 1932 British novels British mystery novels Novels by Alfred Walter Stewart Novels set in England British detective novels British crime novels Hodder & Stoughton books {{1930s-mystery-novel-stub