Oh My Darling Daughter

The sleepy village of Shepherd's Delight has never seen anything quite like Gloria, and Viola feels that life is getting just a little out of hand. This amusing tale of an unorthodox situation is also a perceptive account of a young woman's coming of age.

Dr. Hugh Westlake investigates murder in a powerful family, by the Edgar Award–winning author who wrote the Peter Duluth Mysteries as Patrick Quentin. Patrick Quentin, best known for the Peter Duluth puzzle mysteries, also penned outstanding detective novels from the 1930s through the 1960s under other pseudonyms, including Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge. Anthony Boucher wrote: “Quentin is particularly noted for the enviable polish and grace which make him one of the leading American fabricants of the murderous comedy of manners; but this surface smoothness conceals intricate and meticulous plot construction as faultless as that of Agatha Christie.” The entire town is at sixes and sevens with the homecoming of the Hilton family, whose ancestor, Benjamin, left the village of Kenmore ages ago and eventually rose to become vice president of the United States. Now the Hiltons have returned—not that they’re particularly happy about it, if their rather standoffish attitude is any clue. But even such a highly regarded family has its secrets. And when their aged nanny dies under mysterious circumstances, Westlake is asked by Inspector Cobb to step beyond his role as local coroner and conduct a clandestine investigation into the Hilton household. Such a task won’t be easy, as other branches of the family arrive and expand Westlake’s list of possible suspects. But he’s not about to let a possible murder go unsolved, no matter how blue the blood being spilled . . .

A murder mystery, inspired by a real life event. This novel within a novel is a page turner. The details of the familiar tragic event, which inspired this novel, have remained unsolved. This novel answers the questions which have thus far gone unanswered.