The Last Vanity

Edwin Newsome was pretty worried about his brother's health - so worried that he hired Glenn Bowman to work his way into Harold Newsome's household to do some unofficial sleuthing. Harold was suffering from an obscure sickness, and though he's recently married a pretty girl much younger than him, Edwin didn't think it was just blonde fever! In fact, he suspects that the lovely Moira is taking a short-cut to wealthy widowhood by putting poison in her husband's food. Bowman's first step forward brings him up against a corpse, and even he can't make a dead man talk. This is only the beginning of a dramatic case that takes Bowman down a dark and slippery road to a startling denoument. There are some mysterious undercurrents beneath the surface involving family and staff alike, leading to a conclusion much more sinister than a scheming wife after her husband's money...

Leo Ognall (1908-1979), who wrote several novels under the pseudonyms Harry Carmichael and Hartley Howard, was born in Montreal and worked as a journalist before starting his fiction career. He wrote over ninety novels before his death in 1979. Harry Carmichael's primary series, written from 1952-1978, The Piper and Quinn series included characters such as John Piper (an insurance assessor) and Quinn, a crime reporter. His other works include: The Glenn Bowman series, 1951-1979; The Philip Scott series, 1964-1967.