The Scolds Bridle

Few tears fall when rich, spiteful old Mathilda Gillespies bloody corpse is found her bathtub, her wrists slit and the ancient scolds bridle clamped on her head. It seems Mathildas favorite heirloom was also an instrument of torture form the Middle Ages, an iron cage used to gag yapping women. Among the Dorset villagers, only Sarah Blakeney, Mathildas doctor for her final year, seems even mildly disturbed that the miserable nag has been muzzled forever.

But suicide starts to look like homicide, and Sarahs sorrow seems a bit contrived when the bombshell drops that Mathilda has disinherited her daughter and granddaughter, leaving her entire fortune to Sarah. Now the object of vicious gossip and the polices prime suspect in a brutal murder, Sarah must prove her innocence by delving into Mathildas past to unmask the real killer.