The trouble at Pinelands A detective story

About the book

George Uhlman agrees to spend the night at Fort House while the family prepares for his nephew Lewis Parker's marriage to Dorothy McGregor. The elderly narrator already feels uneasy about his place in the couple's future, and the gloomy house offers little comfort: unexplained disturbances are attributed to a poltergeist, while an invalid aunt and her nurse complicate domestic life. Outside, professional rivalry between young Doctor Parker and the established Doctor Gaskell creates a more ordinary source of hostility. When Gaskell is found dead after a gunshot, that tension becomes dangerous evidence against Lewis. Poate gives the investigation both a personal witness and an unstable atmosphere, asking readers to distinguish observations from assumptions while household secrets and local grievances crowd around the apparent facts.

• Evidence and suspicion
• Household secrets
• Professional rivalry

Why read it

The anxious older narrator gives the mystery emotional stakes beyond the identification of a culprit.

English text of the Chelsea House edition, copyright 1922