"Her maid found her this morning. She was lying across the bed, strangled."
Young Virginia Carew is making a trip to England when she encounters old friend Glenn Hillier-strangely altered from the last time they met. Glenn is besotted with a glamorous middle-aged lady, with whom he's been staying in the blissful English countryside. It isn't long before Virginia too is a guest of the family, but there are snakes in this garden of Eden-snakes at first entangled in jealousy; then blackmail; finally murder.
In the events which follow, Glenn disappears, suspected by some of suicide. Virginia finds her world up-ended as events take an ever darker turn. It'll be up the intrepid young American to stay one step ahead of the police, and finish the case before the deadly water weed pulls her down . . .
Water Weed
was originally published in 1929. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
"She could not be unexciting if she tried"
Times Literary Supplement