Footsteps in the Dark By Georgette Heyer

Soon after Peter, Margaret, and Celia inherit an old family estate, they begin to hear rumors from staff and locals that the house is haunted bya ghost they call The Monk.  At first the rumors give the young people a pleasant kind of thrill, until they literally find a skeleton in the closet! Meanwhile, unexpected people keep wandering across their property, and townsfolks are acting strangely. Can the three solve the mystery, or will encounters with The Monk force them to give up their ancestral home?

Georgette Heyer (who wrote back in the 1930's) is best known for her Victorian romances, and hers are among my favorites in that genre. This book is one of a few mysteries she wrote, and when she wrote it it was set in contemporary (i.e. 1930's) England. As a result, some people have cars and others don't.  Some have electricity, but telephones are still quite rare. It is interesting to me how much has changed in 100 years. Anyway, although Heyer is not as good at mystery as she is at period romance, this is a decent mystery and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot and clues to the mystery are carefully thought out, and Heyers adds a cute little romance. The characters have the snappy dialog found in all Heyer novels. The setting is fairly gothic, and it was a good choice as a not-too-scary October ghost story. (1932, 352 p)