The Crimson Cryptogram by Fergus Hume

Next day the body of the unfortunate man was removed to the Dukesfield morgue, and twenty-four hours later the coroner held an inquiry in the coffee-room of the Lancaster Hotel. Public interest was greatly roused over the matter, and the ubiquitous reporters of the great "dailies" -- amongst them Harry Cass -- attended, note-book in hand, to supply their readers with sensational details. A rumour -- first set afloat by the babbling tongue of Mrs. Basket -- was prevalent that Mrs. Moxton had killed her husband with a carving-knife. It was known from the same source that she had lived a lonely life since taking up her abode in Myrtle Villa, that Moxton had neglected her shamefully, that he had left her nightly by herself, and had even denied her the comfort and company of a servant. Hence it was openly declared that cruel treatment and contemptuous desertion had driven Mrs. Moxton to commit the crime.

But this theory found no favour in the sight of Dr. Ellis, and he avowed himself the champion of the pretty widow.