Fault in the Structure by Mitchell, Gladys - 1977

London: Michael Joseph, 1977. A Fine unmarked copy in a Very Good+ dustjackest which has some fading to spine and is not price clipped. A.C. Swinburne, nee Swineborn, was a man who started life off on the wrong foot - and it stayed that way. Born of a domineering and ambitious mother and a weak-willed, work-shy father, he is to some extent a victim of his heredity. But given every chance in later life, he remains a criminal and becomes a suspected murderer. The book opens in the grounds of Abbesses College, a womens college in an old and famous university. The body of a woman is found in the cloisters. The murder still unsolved, the scene of the story changes to a small town on the borders of the New Forest, where the members of the local dramatic and operatic society are preparing for a production of 'The Beggar's Opera'. Unfalteringly, and with her usual wry humour, Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley combines forces with her secretary, the Mrs. Peachum of the opera, to solve the mystery which then follows: that of Swinburne's own rather spectacular death at the conclusion of John Gay's operatic satire. 22. First. Hard Cover. Fine/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.