by A. E. Fielding (Author)
The Rev. John Avery, rector of the village church, was famous for the eloquence and scholarly nature of his sermons. No one in attendance at the Sunday service was surprised then, when the rector, having evidently exchanged his notes for some other document, after a moment's hesitation, delivered one of his most moving sermons extempore. They were, however, much surprised, when the rector was found dead the next morning the victim of an apparent accidental poisoning. Coming on the heels of the death of one of the leading young men of the village by a shooting, also ruled an accident, it seemed to all an unfortunate coincidence. To all, that is, except for Chief Inspector Pointer, who, by a much more fortunate coincidence, happened to be visiting the County Chief Constable for a spot of fishing. It falls to the Scotland Yard detective to unravel the web of secrets that form the . . . Mystery at the Rectory
Author Biography
The identity of the author is as much a mystery as the plots of the novels. Two dozen novels were published from 1924 to 1944 as by Archibald Fielding, A. E. Fielding, or Archibald E. Fielding, yet the only clue as to the real author is a comment by the American publishers, H.C. Kinsey Co. that A. E. Fielding was in reality a "middle-aged English woman by the name of Dorothy Feilding whose peacetime address is Sheffield Terrace, Kensington, London, and who enjoys gardening." Research on the part of John Herrington has uncovered a person by that name living at 2 Sheffield Terrace from 1932-1936. She appears to have moved to Islington in 1937 after which she disappears. To complicate things, some have attributed the authorship to Lady Dorothy Mary Evelyn Moore nee Feilding (1889-1935), however, a grandson of Lady Dorothy denied any family knowledge of such authorship. The archivist at Collins, the British publisher, reports that any records of A. Fielding were presumably lost during WWII. Birthdates have been given variously as 1884, 1889, and 1900. Unless new information comes to light, it would appear that the real authorship must remain a mystery.