The Bolt.

First and only edition, first impression, of this murder mystery set in the village of Ringshall. Best-known now for her acclaimed collection of ghost stories, Randall's Round (1929), Helen Madeline Leys (1892-1965) published under the pennames Peter Redcliffe Shore and Eleanor Scott. This mystery, like Randall's Round, plays on ideas of local superstitions and supernatural beliefs. Her successful first novel War Among Ladies (1928) showed a "shrewd and uncanny" grasp of the emotional lives of women (The Denton Lass O, 9 October 1930). It is demonstrated in The Bolt as the narrator, a 39-year old spinster by the name of Marion Leslie, untangles the cast of potential suspects (including the village witch) of a murder using a rifle equipped with a flint arrowhead, or "elf-bolt". Educated at Somerville College, Oxford, Scott went on to teach locally and wrote several works detailing the day-to-day lives of women. Alongside her fictional works Scott published popular histories, drawing on her experiences as a schoolteacher to create "her greatest successes with the public" (Aigner, p. 341). Described by respected supernatural fiction editor Richard Dalby as "one of the best, but ultimately least known, writers" of this era, Scott's works are now notably uncommon (Dalby, p. 169). Gottfried Aigner, Berührungen der Nacht, 2002; Richard Dalby (ed.), Eleanor Scott, Randall's Round, 1996. Octavo. Original orange cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black, map endpapers. Bookplate of one W. J. J. Van Rossum on half-title over their earlier ownership inscription. Spine cocked, extremities rubbed, cloth bright, contents foxed: a very good copy.…