Old Mrs. Puddequet thought it would be great fun to determine which of her five grandnephews would inherit her fortune by devising an athletics competition for them to take part in. To that end she turns the grounds of her estate into an Olympics field and sets the cousins to training in various field events, including the discus, the long jump, and the shot put. All prove singularly inept at their events, to the vexation of their trainer, Kost, who has been hired to coach them. Also on hand are the three sisters of the young men, who are simply along for the ride, as well as the old lady's adopted grandson, who has been written out of her will because he aspires to be an actor, and Mrs. Puddequet's paid companion, Miss Caddick, who has secret expectations of her own. When the body of a loutish villager is found in a lake on the estate, Inspector Bloxham is called in to investigate. Then another murder follows, and Mrs. Beatrice Bradley, the noted psychoanalyst who is visiting at a neighboring estate, steps in to lend the hapless Bloxham a hand. The third of Gladys Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley mysteries, first published in 1930, it's an example of how the author frequently bent the rules of the fair-play detective novel to her own absurdist ends. You'll never be able to guess the killer's motives, but you'll have loads of fun watching Mrs. Bradley unravel the mystery.

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