Expecting nothing more than a quiet holiday in the sleepy seaside town of Gallmouth, England, Andrew Basnett is first surprised to meet his nephew, Peter Dilly, quite by chance, and then both pleased and annoyed to find himself drawn into the activities of the town's first arts festival. It's pleasant to be invited for dinner at the home of successful novelist Simon Amory, but not so pleasant when Amory's sister-in-law is found shot to death in Amory's summer house, and Basnett's nephew is both the last person to have seen her alive and the first to see her dead. When a second woman of Amory's acquaintance is also found dead, the rather prickly writer would seem to be a prime suspect but Basnett has other ideas.

No one is better than E. X. Ferrars, undisputed past mistress of the domestic British mystery, at uncovering the personal torments that lie beneath the surface of tranquil small-town life, and one is better at unraveling the complex relationships and motivations that so often lead to unexpected violence.

Genre: Mystery