Foxhall Daingerfield (1883–1933)

An American mystery from 1928.
Extremely old-fashioned (of course), this short mystery has a good picture of wintry village life. The reader can feel the snow and the cold, which adds to the atmosphere.
The story...oh boy. Our main character/narrator is the (about 40 years old) village seamstress. Her very-wealthy best friend and family live across the street. Soon strange and frightening things start happening in the big house, and Hester is called in to help the family cope.
The plot requires close reading, but most of the writing style makes that easy. There is some annoying use of “negro dialect”, but I will say that the servants aren’t portrayed as idiots or sycophants. Still, it’s really distasteful to today’s readers. On the other hand, there are some plot points that aren’t neatly tied up, just like in real life. And the very last paragraph is satisfactory.
I’d recommend this to mystery readers who like to step back in time and be immersed in slower, different world.… (mehr)