Green, Anna Katharine: The Mill Mystery, v.1, 24 August 2008.
 

Anna Katharine Green [Mrs Charles Rohlfs] (1846–1935)
The Mill Mystery (1886)

One of Anna Katharine Green’s most interesting mysteries, this explores the nature of moral weakness when confronted with violence.

A young clergyman is found dead in mysterious circumstances in a disused mill. The news is fatal to his fiancée. And an imperious matron on the other side of town also has a stroke on hearing the news. Why? And why are her two sons behaving in such a sinister manner?
The dying fiancée’s room-mate – a level-headed orphan – decides to investigate, takes a job nursing the sick woman, and helps to uncover a shocking tale of selfishness, greed and hypocrisy.