Death of a Poison Tongue — Josephine Bell

"Middlecombe buzzes with rumours. Like a wasp's nest," warned her odd train companion. "Slanders rather. Our poison-tongue. None of us is safe."When undergraduate Althea Swinford moves to sleepy Middlecombe to study, she quickly finds herself embroiled in the town's hotbed of gossip and scandal. Beneath the respectable veneer of the town, dark secrets lurk, and a when a cold-blooded murder threatens to explode the surrounding myths and mysteries, Althea is immersed, over her head.Originally published in 1972, Death of a Poison Tongue finds acclaimed crime novelist Josephine Bell at the height of her powers.