[Mrs Bradley 29] • Twelve Horses and the Hangman's Noose

Dame Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley has been asked to deliver the opening day speech for the Seahampton Grammar School. Before opening day, Laura Gavin, Dame B.'s secretary, learns of the suspicious death of a riding stable owner, and the duo investigate. John Mapsted's body was found early in the morning in one of the horse stables, his skull smashed. The horse in the stable made a commotion at six a.m., but the doctor concluded the time of death near midnight. Also, what would Mapsted be doing in the stables at that hour?

Laura can't believe the horse--a tempermental but nonviolent creature--could have killed Mapsted. The stablehand, Jenkinson, claims there was blood on the horse's hoof, but he says he immediately washed away the evidence. Further questioning proves complicated: Jenkinson turns up dead at the school's opening day ceremonies, sprawled funereally among a display of daffodils and grape-hyacinths in the gymnasium. A teacher's disappearance, a blood-stained mallet from the art department, a bit of airport smuggling and a run-in with a gipsy named Zozo keep Dame Beatrice and Laura busy.