In Ellicott's leisurely sixth mystery set in the English village of Walmsley Parva in the early 1920s (after 2021's Murder in an English Glade), someone is making a great deal of mischief in the village by sending out the most distressing anonymous letters. When the new doctor's wife attempts suicide after receiving one of these nasty missives, private enquiry agents Beryl Helliwell, "a confirmed adventuress," and her slightly less exuberant friend, village magistrate Edwina Davenport, investigate. They soon discover that practically everyone in Walmsley Parva has received such a letter, including a pillar of the local garden club, whose subsequent death makes it imperative that they find the culprit. Meanwhile, Edwina works on her novel featuring cowboy-gunslinger Bart Dalton, and both women embark upon their new role as spokeswomen for a line of convenience foods for Colonel Kimberly's Condiment Company, as their profession makes them "the very model of modern womanhood." Never mind the slow pace and an easily solvable mystery. This charming outing succeeds as pure escapism. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Aug.)

Poison-pen letters wreak havoc in a quiet English village in the wake of the First World War. Following in the illustrious footsteps of Constable Doris Gibbs, Walmsley Parva's first female police officer, magistrate Edwina Davenport is bent on proving that women can mete out justice to lawbreakers as efficiently as they can arrest them. Of course, she's a wee bit nervous on her first day, so she asks her roommate, Beryl Halliwell, who's offered to come along as her cheering section, to stay home, although she does allow her good friend Charles Jarvis, who, as a solicitor, is more familiar with the ways of the court, to accompany her. But what should be a red-letter day is marred by some unseemly correspondence that might as well be written in blood. Handyman Norman Davis, brought to the bench for brawling in the street with mechanic Michael Blackburn, discovers that Michael attacked him after having received an anonymous note claiming he had been telling fellow villagers that Michael's war wound came not from defending his troops but from deserting them. Soon Edwina and Beryl discover that nastygrams have been simply flying about Walmsley Parva. Mrs. Dunstable of the Woolery hears that Nurse Crenshaw claimed that the shop owner earned her initial stake through blackmail. Beddoes, Edwina's housemaid, receives word saying that postmistress Prudence Rathbone has accused her of stealing from former employers. When Beryl gets a letter claiming that the vicar has publicly raised objections to her living situation, Edwina decides she's had enough. She and Beryl vow to track down the sender of the malicious missives before someone gets hurt. Unfortunately, someone does. A finely calibrated puzzle sends the two sleuths on a mission that will delight the most discerning cozy aficionado. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.