Poison is a Bitter Brew Author:Anne Hocking Miss Milverton contemplated with content her cdharming home and spacious grounds, her farm, which not only supported itself but brought in a large income, her retainers' loyalty to herself and her family for two generations. It was with less content that she mused on her family and the terms of her father's will, under which all of her worldly... more » pollessions passed to her nephew, Geroge Hayle, that member of her family of whom she most disapproved. George drank. Not only that, but other rumors of an even more lurid sort had reached her ears. The nephew who would inherit in the event of George's death, Osbert Garstin, she disliked because he was cold-blooded, cynical, and smug. It was really a thousand pities that it was not in her power to leave her beloved mansion and all its belongings to Charles Temple, the charming son of her favorite sister.
This is the scene at the beginning of POISON IS A BITTER BREW. When Chief Inspector Austen enters the case two accidental deaths had resulted from, oddly enough, the dame cuase, poison. The law felt that it was too odd and too accidental and sent Chief INspector Austen to Cornwall to investigate. His investigations would perhaps have moved more quickly if he had not encountered everywhere the respecdt and awe with which the local police officers and all the little Cornish world regarded Miss Milverton. The King may do wrong, but not Miss Milverton.« less