Constance Lindsay Dowdy Taylor (1907-2000) began publishing stories, poems, and articles for periodicals in 1928. Her marriage put her writing career on hold for several years. In 1948 her first detective novel, Murder with Relish, was published by Skeffington & Sons, attributed to C. Lindsay Taylor. Her publisher convinced her to adopt the pseudonym Guy Cullingford for her subsequent crime fiction. Her most celebrated title, Post Mortem, was published in 1953 and received wide critical acclaim. Her identity was finally unmasked after being accepted into The Detection Club, the Crime Writers Association, and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.

First editions of her initial crime novel are hard to find. Fortunately Hachette’s Orion Publishing included it in The Murder Room catalog of vintage detective fiction, making the title available again to readers. The cessation of this source of out-of-print crime fiction is a real loss to students of the Golden Age.

The foreword to Murder with Relish states that the story takes place in the last years of King George V, who died in January 1936. The Everard family is celebrating the birthday of its wealthy but tight-fisted matriarch with an elaborate dinner chosen by her children and delivered by that gem of a cook Mrs. Bonnet, who has been with the household her entire life. All of Mrs. Everard’s surviving children are present: Helen, the oldest who lives with Mrs. Everard and serves as a browbeaten companion; Dennis, recently returned from South Africa where he was sent after incurring heavy gambling losses: Randolph and his social climbing wife Amy; George who is drinking heavily these days; his unhappy wife Aggie who is trying to run a farm alone; and Arthur, co-owner of an auto repair shop, for which demeaning occupation his family criticizes him roundly.

When Mrs. Everard dies in the night after several hours of gastric distress, everyone attributes the cause to the rich meal of steak and lobster she had no business eating. But when Judd the gardener complains to Mrs. Bonnet about someone taking the arsenic he uses for weeds, and Eva the parlor maid mentions the bottle of Worcestershire sauce is missing from the tray of table condiments, Mrs. Bonnet puts the two together and begins her own investigation.

The number of mysteries that kill a wealthy elder on his or her birthday must number in the dozens. I don’t think the killer is ever someone from outside the family. Despite the familiarity of the scenario, it seems there is always something new about each one, and such is the case here. In addition to an unusual detective, the story veers off into psychological thriller territory as each family member reacts, sometimes unexpectedly, to the loss of their mother. The ending too is not in the least what I expected. All in all, an impressive debut, one that wears well over time.