Hands Up, Miss Seeton by Hamilton Crane, Heron Carvic

Miss Seeton goes to town with the intentions of visiting a few art exhibits and museums and then picking up some gifts at Harrods.  She takes her umbrella with her, of course.  When she sees a man who appears to be bleeding from a stab wound in his back, she goes to help him.  Another young man gets there first and the injured man is fighting with him.  Miss Seeton manages to disable both of them unintentionally.  The young man runs away.  The "injured" man grabs Miss Seeton and accuses her of theft!

Farrago and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

It takes a bit but the local cops discover who is Miss Seeton is and they take her to Scotland Yard.  There she's apologized to for the misunderstanding and she's fine with that.  She does get asked to draw a picture of the young man who stole the gentleman's wallet.  She says she'll try.

When she gets home, she sees a couple she knows from the cruise she took a few years ago and they catch up on news and agree to do some things together.  They are in town to see if they can get an old boyfriend of the woman's to do some paintings for her.  No luck there but they stay a bit longer.

One family who is also staying at the hotel absconds without paying their bill.  The cops find a dead man and know he was into selling drugs.  Somehow Miss Seeton manages to solve all these cases just by adding odd facts here and there that give the Oracle some clues.

She still talks 'round about and gets lost on different subjects now and again but she also always gets at the heart of the matter.

Her quiet little retirement town is not so quiet as long as Miss Seeton lives there.