RATING: GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
Sarah Fairbanks is a country school teacher who is engaged to Henry Ellis. The problem is that her father opposes the engagement as Henry has no money, and she can't marry him without her father's approval. During the holiday she goes home to stay with her father, who lives with a cousin of his. Before his cousin, Rufus, leaves for Vermont, the two men have a heated argument about business.
That night Martin, Sarah's father, reiterates his opposition to Henry, and Sarah thinks that Henry should find himself another suitable girl. Early the next morning Sarah wakes up and when she goes to her father's room, she finds him dead. He has been stabbed. Sarah rushes to the door and realises that everything is locked, and she worries that the murderer is still inside.
Sarah asks for the help of her neighbours, Phoebe Dole and Maria Woods, and the police are called. The first suspicion falls on Rufus because the two men had had an argument, but Rufus proves that when Martin was killed, he was away. Then when they find a yellow ribbon, which is similar to the ribbon Henry has around his horse whip, the man is accused. Henry admits to having been near the house, but he lost his nerve, and the stable hand testifies and assures that Henry left the town much earlier than when Martin was killed. The only person that is then suspected is Sarah and she is sent to prison for several months, but nothing can be proved.
Sarah returns with the determination to find out who killed her father. Otherwise, suspecion will always hover over her, and she won't be able to marry Henry. She starts examining the house room by room. Henry has promised to talk to a detective who is a cousin of his, Francis Dix, and the man turns up some days later. The detective thinks that the way the murderer sneaked into the house was through the cat gap because someone with a long arm could unlock and lock the door easily. Sarah also finds a ring hidden in a chair leg. The ring had a year forty years ago and the name Maria, and there is a new date which is recent.
In the end thanks to the detective's work and her own findings, the culprit confesses. It is the neighbour, Phoebe. Martin had been in love with Maria, the neighbour living with Phoebe, before Sarah's mother, but Maria turned him down because she had promised Phoebe that she would not leave her. Recently Martin asked Maria to marry him, and she had accepted his proposal,, and when Phoebe discovered that she was about to lose her friend, she knew that the only way to prevent it was by killing the man. Phoebe is sent to prison where she dies, and Sarah eventually marries Henry.
That was a great story. I imagined who the killer may be, so there were no surprises, but I did not know the motive of the murder.
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