It was not at all a suitable house for a murder.Helen Bailey is the live-in housekeeper to the wealthy Murray family. Tall, dark-haired and beautiful, the enigmatic Helen has long ensured that life at 'The Towers' ran smoothly for autocratic patriarch James Murray, his widowed son John, and grandchildren Alan and Glenda. When Helen is found dead in her blood-soaked bedroom, struck down in a horrific attack, the police must consider not only the family's relationships but everyone close to them. Helen's jewellery is missing, suggesting a robbery gone wrong, but the clues are confusing and contradictory. Dogged policework eventually points to one person, but have the authorities identified a cold-blooded murderer or an innocent person framed by others?This classic detective novel from 1933 is based on an unsolved real-life crime.Dorothy Erskine Muir (1889-1977) was one of seventeen children (twelve who reached...

Much had been risked, and the murderer had escaped by such a rare combination of chances.When elderly, unpleasant Simon Ewing was bludgeoned in his maisonette, and a stranger was seen exiting the building by several of the residents. The murderer had entered-and escaped-in just a few minutes when invalid Ewing was left unattended, implying that someone knew the movements of both his household and the neighbours.Who would run such a risk in a building with multiple comings and goings?Robbery appears to be the motive, but why was only one ring taken from Ewing's secret hoard of valuable jewellery? A second death leads Detective-Inspector Woods to untangle exactly who was where in the crucial minutes before the murder.Five to Five draws its inspiration from a notorious unsolved murder in Glasgow - the Slater Case of 1909 - and creates an alternative fictionalised account of what might have happened.Dorothy...