A legendary criminal called The Bat has been haunting the countryside, his identity and next move unknown. When seventy-year-old Miss Cornelia Van Gorder rents a remote country house for summer, she expects tranquility. Instead, she finds a mansion full of secrets: servants fleeing in terror, a dead banker, and a young clerk whose neck is on the chopping block for embezzlement after the bank collapsed. As a violent storm isolates the house from the outside world, Miss Cornelia decides to solve both mysteries herself, matching wits against The Bat while uncovering what lies hidden within the walls. Stephen Vincent Benét's first novel is a cleverly constructed puzzle where nothing and no one is quite what they seem, blending cozy Detection with genuine Hitchcockian dread. For fans of Golden Age mysteries and heroines who refuse to wait for rescue.
