Margaret Frazer, The Hunter's Tale

[ellarien]

A huntsman and seriously abusive father/husband dies mysteriously in the forest, to no one's dismay. Unfortunately, he manages to leave his widow and heirs in a fairly impossible situation through an unreasonable will, and a neighbor starts to take a suspicious interest in the widow. Somewhere along the line, I forget how exactly, Dame Frevisse the detecting nun gets involved. I wonder if it says something about the construction of the plot that I can, at a few months' remove and after reading a couple more in the same series, neither remember how she got there nor what if anything she accomplishes once there; the family tragedy unfolds regardless, and the dogs are the most interesting characters, on the whole.