And death came too

the long version

It seems sometimes as though certain people are born under a dark star. Misfortune and tragedy dog them at every step-ships in which they travel come to grief, trains are derailed, hotels go up in flames. Even those near and dear to them are not spared-bereavement, scandal and even death follow them wherever they go. Some people attribute this to certain stars and planets, and declare that so long as a given condition exists it is useless to struggle; the dice are loaded, fate throws with a two-headed penny. Among these victims of circumstance Ruth Garside seemed to have her place. As a girl she was accused of a dreadful crime; as a wife she was suspected of responsibility for her husband's death; as a widow she was held guilty of an employer's murder. I can't prove her innocence, cried Thomas Fogg. I can't prove my own innocence, said Ruth. She's my client, so she can't be guilty, and by heck, I'll prove it if it means the skies falling, declared Arthur Crook. Well—did he? And was he justified? Anthony Gilbert leaves the reader to judge the outcome of this exciting and original new crime story.