British author Lana Hutton Bowen-Judd (1922-1985) was born and educated in Yorkshire, England. During World War II she worked in a bank and in a solicitor’s office. She married after the war and with her husband raised pigs for a few years. (Anyone wondering about the source of the detailed descriptions of the farm in Yorkshire where Antony and Jenny Maitland spend their summers now have their answer.) They emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and there she launched her astonishingly prolific writing career, using her work in a solicitor’s office as the basis for many of the plots. She was a member of the Society of Authors, the Authors League of America, the Mystery Writers of America, and the Crime Writers Association. She also helped found the Crime Writers of Canada and served on its first executive committee.
Bowen-Judd published 48 mysteries under the name of Sara Woods, all featuring barrister and Queens Counsel Antony Maitland. In the early 1980s she published three books under the name Anne Burton, four under the name of Mary Challis, and three under the name Margaret Leek. All of them were released in mass market paperback by Worldwide/Raven House, a different publisher from the Maitland books.
Richard Trenton is the protagonist of Anne Burton’s books. Trenton is a banker, a manager in the Advance Department of the Northumberland and Wessex Bank. In Where There’s a Will (Raven House, 1980) Trenton’s decision not to lend £750,000 (equivalent to £4,432,635.50 today) to Kevin Ross, a dreamy young man desirous of setting himself up as a farmer, is overruled by Trenton’s superiors, as Ross had a wealthy grandmother whom they thought would secure the loan. Trenton felt the decision was unwise but could not say anything more.
Two years on and his worst fears were realized: Ross and his farm were floundering and his payments to the bank were in arrears. After a contentious family dinner his grandmother is killed and Trenton is appalled to see that Ross is charged with her murder. Of course Ross cannot inherit if found guilty. The general managers of the bank have no intention of losing their money so they assign Trenton, over his protests, the task of looking into the murder independently of the police.
Trenton reluctantly begins to talk to everyone he can think of including the nephews and the companion who were present that night and learns that Mrs. Ross had announced her intention of disinheriting her grandson as soon as her solicitor could draw up the papers. In addition, he had been seen leaving his grandmother’s bedroom shortly before she was found dead. Her death was the best thing that could happen to Ross. The three nephews and their wives are the obvious suspects, as they will inherit now, but they all seem to have solid alibis.
Trenton makes a less likely investigator than Antony Maitland, probably because the pretext for his involvement is so thin. He is perhaps not as perspicacious as Maitland but just as dogged in his queries. The resolution is neatly set up and I found it a satisfying if not especially original ending. Any reader who enjoys the Maitland books will like this one.
All three of the titles by Anne Burton are available for a reasonable price on the secondary market, although most copies are worn, to be expected in a 40-year-old mass market paperback.