The Death Wish / Net of Cobwebs - Elisabeth Holding Sanxay

DEATH WISH

Poor Mr. Delancey.  His wife Josephine belittles him, controlling his purse strings and managing his life.  It’s understandable that one might grow a bit resentful.  His best friend, Robert Whitestone, is a frustrated artist.  Whitestone hates his wife, and is in love with a young girl named Elsie who has come to stay with their neighbors, the Luffs.  But Whitestone has a plan to free himself, and naturally Delancey is pulled into the middle of it, willingly or not.  And when Mrs. Whitestone is found drowned, what can poor  Delancey do?  He has to help his friend, no matter what the consequences.  If only his wife weren’t so hateful about the whole thing, so unreasonable.   It’s only when young Hugh Acheson comes to visit and begins an investigation of his own that things become really complicated.  Poor Mr. Delancey—what’s a man to do?  It’s enough to drive a person to murder.

NET OF COBWEBS

Malcolm Drake had been a merchant seaman, but has returned from the war a changed man, his nerves completely frayed.  Now he lives at his brother Arthur’s house, with his sister-in-law Helene and her sister Virginia—and their domineering Aunt Evie.  Aunt Evie only wants what is best for Malcolm, of course, but when she drops dead one evening at a party, the rumors quickly spread that he had something to do with it. Dr. Lurie is sure that Malcolm had loaded her glass with alcohol, inducing a heart attack.  The butler, Ben, even claims to have seen him do it. One of the guests, Aunt Evie’s young protégé, Ivan Jenette, has news to the contrary, but has conveniently disappeared. Their neighbor, Lily Kingscrown, believes in his innocence, but there is something decidedly strange going on at her house—her own maid goes into screaming fits for apparently no reason.  And now the police have some questions of their own. Malcolm is enmeshed in a neb of cobwebs, and the strands are growing tighter by the moment.