The Shadow of the Scaffold

Violet Fernsley is due to hang for killing her violent husband Ivan but Father Brown believes in her innocence. The Fernsley family close ranks but the priest is puzzled by the fact that Polish farm-hand Piotr Symanski disappeared around the time of the murder and also seems to have been slain. Ivan's brothers' squabbling over possession of his farm seems to incriminate one or both whilst Sullivan is suspicious of the fact that prison warder Charlie Denham is Violet's lover. Father Brown naturally deduces that the real murderer is the least likely suspect.