The quaint and quiet village of Brimful Coffers, colonised by a group of mystery writers, is viewed by that circle to be an ideal retreat from the stresses and harsh realities of the outside world. But sometimes tragedy can intrude even into paradise. First, a village child is killed, victim of a callous hit-and-run incident. And then two of the visiting authors discover that they are both using the same well-known Elizabethan lady as the heroine and villainess of their respective history-mystery series. The situation threatens to end in poisoned pens at dawn, unless cooler heads can prevail. Unfortunately for the warring authors one of the coolest heads around, that of hard-boiled crime novelist Macho Magee, has been well and truly turned by the chick-lit bestseller Cressie Adair, also new to the area - he has even allowed her to put his beloved cat Roscoe on an Atkins-inspired diet. Lorinda Lucas and Freddie Carlson, Macho's longtime friends, scheme to try and save him from the harpie, Cressie, but their efforts seem doomed to be too little and too late. Certainly, they are too late for one of the feuding rival authors who falls victim to another fatal hit-and-run. But is it accident or murder? And who else may be at risk as the cold brutality of the real criminal world invades their peaceful rural retreat?