The Farmhouse — Helen Reilly

“Nell Shevlin's womanly intuition works overtime after she arrives at her old homestead to rest and ponder a proposal of marriage. …
Miss Reilly again reveals her artistry by producing a tale in which terror and menace are well sustained and provide a congruous background for McKee to wind up one of his best cases to date.” -- The New York Times

From the jacket:
The shadow of a ruthless killer creeps over a quiet countryside as fear and suspense mount steadily and explode in a crashing climax.

Wouldn't You Like to Know --
Why lanterns are lit each evening on the graves of the four dead Vestry sisters?
Why a woman wearing black net stockings and shoes with four-inch heels walks country lanes at night?
How a used bus ticket reveals an ingenious blackmail plot?
What is the reason for Wick's strange relationship with the breathtakingly beautiful Rita?
Why flowers are heaped on a grave where no one is buried?
You will learn the answers as you read this ingenious story of death and terror.

Where will the clues and events lead you?
A human hand sticking out of a puddle after a rainstorm ... An oil painting of a lady in red ... A pistol found in a pond . . . Blood seeping out from under an attic doorway . . . Lanterns, lighted each day at dusk, on four marble headstones in a quiet country graveyard ... A bullet hidden in the finger of a pigskin glove . . . Rifle shots that shatter the quiet (and a window) of a peaceful farmhouse ... . A briefcase hidden among blackberry bushes . . . Oil dripping slowly from a tank that should have been empty . . . Exchange of carpets in an upstairs bedroom ... A powerful narcotic discarded for a quicker and more brutal method of committing MURDER . . . Filmy yellow silk knotted tightly about a shapely throat . . . murder and violence in a peaceful farming community.

Also by Helen Reilly:
Name Your Poison
The Dead Can Tell
The Farmhouse
Tell Her It's Murder