Sheila Pim (1909–1995) was an Irish novelist and horticulturalist. She wrote four witty crime novels and three serious novels along with a biography of Irish botanist Augustine Henry. She also was an enthusiastic cultivator of flowers and vegetables and wrote gardening columns for the Irish Times and for the magazine My Garden. Most of her articles for the magazine were collected later and published in a book called Bringing the Garden Indoors (1949). But her crime fiction is largely why she is remembered today.

The second of her four mysteries is Creeping Venom (Hodder & Stoughton, 1946; Rue Morgue Press, 2001). The scenario is not original but Pim’s treatment certainly is. Miss Rebecca Hampton is another wealthy old lady who keeps her relatives on pins and needles as to how she plans to leave her money. When the heretofore favorite relative shows more than passing interest in a lovely, well-off but undeniably Roman Catholic young lady, Miss Hampton is horrified and sends for her solicitor.

Soon afterward, she invites the other male relative in contention for the property and his mother for lunch, then becomes distressingly ill. Her physician has the presence of mind to send for her solicitor who makes deathbed changes to her will at her request. The doctor declines to give a death certificate and calls the police.

The local gendarmerie find the entire case beyond them and send for reinforcements from Dublin. Inspector Devlin arrives and begins searching for the poison. His minions end up turning the house out completely, something that had not been done in dozens of years, finding all manner of useless items but no poison. While that multi-day task is underway, Devlin interviews everyone who saw Miss Hampton in the day or so before her death and establishes alibis.

The characters are all wonderful, especially the local beggar Mrs. Shegog, who was rumored to be a witch. Miss Hampton could have been kind to the unfortunate Mrs. Shegog but instead she demanded that she stay away and refused to help her. In one memorable scene Mrs. Shegog cursed Miss Hampton in full view of the village; as a witch her curses were believed to have special power and the “people of Brainborough came to their shop doors to hear it professionally done.” Mrs. Shegog’s goat is ever present and is an amusing addition to the Beltane celebration, which is fun all by itself.

The resolution to the mystery is creative, and I should have guessed it but I didn’t.

I learned about Pim’s mysteries from Clothes in Books, a blog by Moira Redmond, who reviewed all four last year:

• Common or Garden Crime (1946), blog post August 12, 2024
• Creeping Venom (1946), blog post September 01, 2024. The comments on this post evolved into an utterly delicious review of Dreadful Mothers in Fiction, of which there are many cited including a few from Georgette Heyer who knew a thing or two about Awful Mothers.
• A Brush with Death (1950), blog post September 18, 2024
• A Hive of Suspects (1952), blog post November 02, 2024

Highly recommended for its plot, characters, witty narrative, and period detail.