Death By Folly

Josiah and Lady Elsmere pay a visit to a neighbor, Mercy Coffey, who organizes a mystery book club meeting each month. They haven’t heard from Mercy about the next meeting and wanted to check on her. It’s not something they look forward to, as the woman is a pack rat. The last time they visited, the woman’s house was nearly impossible to navigate, but now they’re genuinely concerned. Josiah peers through a grimy front porch window when no one answers the door and turns to Lady Elsmere, “Call the police! Mercy has fallen!” Josiah shatters a window and crawls through only to discover Mercy’s lifeless body on the floor, half-hidden by Agatha Christie paperbacks! It’s not clear to Josiah what has happened to Mercy, except that someone has ransacked her home. How else did the books fall upon her?