Asheville is called Furmville in this novel, but readers will recognize the Asheville of the early twentieth century. The city is a haven for tuberculosis patient from all along the eastern seaboard. One of these patients, Miss Fulton, has been accompanied by her older sister, Mrs. Withers, a beautiful and fairly well-to-do woman. As the novel opens, the younger woman finds her older sister dead in the living room of the bungalow they share. Mrs. Withers has been strangled and her jewels have been stolen. Has she been murdered by a stranger or someone in her circle? Police chief Greenleaf is aided in his investigations by an Atlanta detective who is recuperating in Furmville. Their conversations move the investigation forward; those conversations also reveal the racial and social attitudes of the period.
Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.
