The Four Pools Mystery by Jean Webster first published in 1908. In The Four Pools Mystery the tyrannical plantation owner is deemed responsible for his own murder because of his mistreatment of the former slaves who continued in his employment after the war. A mystery involving "haints" and suspicious characters, set in the South Virginia during Victorian times. Jean Webster (pseudonym for Alice Jane Chandler Webster, July 24, 1876 - June 11, 1916) was an American writer and author of many books including Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy. Her best-known books feature lively and likeable young female protagonists who come of age intellectually, morally, and socially, but with enough humor, snappy dialogue, and gently biting social commentary to make her books palatable and enjoyable to contemporary readers.