An Old-Fashioned Family Murder - ePublication
THE STORY: A murder. A mystery. A mother.
It’s a dark and stormy night at the mansion of elderly Colonel Claythorne, and the passé but still relentlessly pompous murder-mystery author Arthur Whittington is holding court with the Colonel’s family: his eldest daughter, Clarice, who is chilly and glamorous; Clarice’s arm candy, Jasper; Claythorne’s youngest daughter, Dotty, who is also a big fan of Whittington’s; and Mrs. Shirley Peck, an unassuming but keenly observant visiting widow. When Whittington shares the news that the Colonel has modified his will to cut out one of his daughters—though which daughter won’t be revealed until the Colonel’s death—tempers flare and resentments are laid bare. As the evening wears on, Mrs. Peck’s son, a junior detective, comes to the house to check on his mother and stumbles upon Whittington’s lifeless body instead, kicking off a murder investigation where everyone in the house is a suspect. With backstabbing, love, and Mrs. Peck’s mother-knows-best advice complicating the affair, it soon becomes clear that nothing—and no one—is what it seems.
