Kill Joy / The Virgin Huntress (Stark House Mystery Classics) - Softcover

KILL JOY People call her a goody-goody, but Maggie just wants to do the right thing. Perhaps she shouldn’t have left the comfortable employ at the Camford house, but Miss Dolly was so insistent that she needed Maggie to accompany her as her new secretary. But why did they need to leave in the middle of the night? When they arrive at their secretive destination, it’s nothing but a rather decrepit cottage by a lake—and occupied by two men, the artist Neely and his inebriated companion, Johnny Cassidy. This wouldn’t do! The next morning Miss Dolly’s lawyer, Mr. Angel, comes calling. Later that day Maggie finds him dead in one of the row boats, and Neely immediately tries to hide the body. But what should she tell the policeman, Captain Hofer? She wants to do right, but everyone works against her. Maggie doesn’t want to get Miss Dolly in trouble. But something is very wrong here. Mr. Angel may be dead, but everyone treats her like the kill joy. THE VIRGIN HUNTRESS Women can’t resist Monty. Gwen considers him her boyfriend. Flora was once his wife. And then there’s Nellie, who’s carrying his baby. Nellie wanted to marry him, to settle down. Monty loved the company of women but there was no way he was going to marry someone like Nellie. She was too possessive, too conniving, too. . . common. He’d finally made his escape and was now well clear of her. Or was he? On V-Day Monty meets Dona Luisa, an older woman who is fascinated by him because he reminds her of a long-lost love. Monty also meets her niece, Rose, who takes an immediate dislike to him. As Luisa begins to fawn on him, Rose starts to ask questions. Questions about his character, about his past. With Rose the huntress now on his trail, he has to work fast. Because Monty has a little secret—and it all leads back to Nellie.

Born in Brooklyn on June 18, 1889, Elisabeth Sanxay knew she wanted to be a writer by the time she was six. At sixteen she completed her first story. She published the first of several contemporary novels in 1920 but turned to mysteries when the Depression changed the market. Self-taught as a writer, she developed her style by translating English into other languages, then translating other languages into English. Holding published 25 novels in her lifetime—18 of them mysteries—and a wide variety of short stories. She married British diplomat George E. Holding in 1913 and together with their two daughters they traveled widely in South America and the Caribbean before settling in Bermuda for a number of years. She died in the Bronx section of New York City on February 7, 1955.