Laurels are Poison

From the back cover: "Towards the end of the dance, Miss Murchan left the arms of the young woman she was waltzing with and went off to tidy her hair -- she was never seen again."Carteret Training College for women teachers is agog: what has happened to the warden of Athelstan Hall? Mrs Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, that most uncanny detective, takes over the running of Athelstan herself in an attempt to solve the mystery. But things go from bad to worse, and pranks take on a horrific twist: the cook disappears too -- only to be found in the river, minus her corsets."Enlisting the help of her student Laura Menzies (half Amazon, half Scot), Mrs Bradley summons all her peculiar powers in the bizarre and masterly puzzle -- finally uncovering a history far more disturbing than anyone could have imagined."