Touch and Go: A Golden Age Mystery

“I know what we’ll do. We’ll play Devil-in-the dark.”

When Sarah Trent was engaged as governess to seventeen-year-old Lucilla Hildred, she didn’t bargain for a series of sinister occurrences—scary noises, the nocturnal rattle of claws against glass, a sabotaged bicycle. Then there is a neighbouring burglary, leaving a set of muddy footprints—but whose?

Sarah comes to suspect that someone is trying to kill the orphaned Lucilla, sole heir to a fortune. Is it visiting American John Brown, or could Lucilla be playing a deceptive game of her own? Someone is poised, waiting like a snake to strike, and Lucilla may not be the only prey…

Touch and Go was originally published in 1934 (original UK title: Devil in the Dark). This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

“When I pick up a book by Patricia Wentworth I think, now to enjoy myself—and I always do.” Mary Dell, Daily Mirror