Books like The dancing druids by Gladys Mitchell

When Mike O'Hara, a talented distance runner, and his fellow athletes chase a missing cousin through the English countryside, a stray encounter on a lonely footpath leads Mike into a dangerous situation. A desperate man urges Mike to help transport a seriously ill stranger to a hospital, but the movement of the packed body on a makeshift stretcher is unsettling and suspicious. Mike’s intuition warns him of foul play, and he forces himself out of the vehicle at night, fleeing the scene. Returning to England, Mike, his cousin Gerry Gascoyne, and friends share their harrowing account with Ferdinand Lestrange, a solicitor who cannot meet them. Rather, Ferdinand’s mother, Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley—a determined female detective—takes the case. With the aid of Mike, Gerry, secretary Laura Menzies, chauffeur George, nephew Denis Bradley, and a troupe of film extras, she unravels a conspiracy that centers on a circle of nine prehistoric stones known as the Dancing Druids. The investigation reveals that the stones conceal a criminal operation that endangers the lives of those who uncover the truth.

First publish date: 1975