The Claverton Affair

A scientifically minded professor is stumped by a case involving séances and an inexplicable inheritance . . . After drifting apart from Sir John Claverton, Dr. Lancelot Priestley is finally visiting his old friend for dinner. But Clavertons situation is worrying. Hes surrounded by relatives, among them a sister who speaks to the deadbut not to himand a niece who may or may not be a qualified nurse. Based on Clavertons odd behavior, Priestley and a mutual friend suspect that someone is slipping him arsenic. But when Priestley discovers that Claverton has died just a week later and shares his concerns with the police, no trace of arsenicor anything else untowardis found during the autopsy. Still, the perceptive professor cant shake his sense that something isnt right, and Clavertons recently revised will only adds to the mystery . . . The puzzle is sound, the atmosphere menacing in a splendidly gloomy way. Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime You can never go far wrong with a Dr. Priestley story. The New York Times