Poison in the Pen (1957) by Patricia Wentworth featuring her detective Miss Maud Silver is a novel about anonymous letters. This subject was also the backdrop of Agatha Christie's "The Moving Finger" (1942), a Miss Jane Marple Mystery. However, many critics feel that the later book is the better one. Be that as it may, Miss Silver, when she arrives at the ill-fated village, meets her old student Randal March, who has become Chief Constable. When he was a small boy, he was delicate & so was educated along with his sisters by Miss Silver, then their governess. However a couple of years of her tutelage put him right. Later after retiring from teaching & becoming a private detective, their paths continued to cross, increasing his regard for her.
Dead Water (1964) by Ngaio Marsh deals with an elderly lady Emily Pride inheriting a place containing a water spring, with allegedly healing powers, a la Lourdes. She is against the commercial exploitation & runs against vested interests out to make a quick buck. When things start getting ugly, she informs her former beloved student, now Inspector Alleyn of Scotland Yard. Such is his regard for his former French teacher, that he rearranges his hectic schedule to attend to her.
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