Walter Fletcher lives at the end of one of the remote valleys in the Forest of Dean. An old man, but still vigorous, he is determined to assert his independence when his family try to persuade him to move out of the big house he has lived in for forty years. But it is a fatal decision, for within two days he is dead. His death is at first presumed to be accidental, and it is his granddaughter, home for the funeral, who first raises doubts about it. Superintendent Lambert and Sergeant Hook find to their embarrassment that the girl's suspicions of foul play are only too well founded. The instinct of the small community of people in this secluded part of the Forest is to protect their own, and, as they close ranks, the police investigation becomes increasingly difficult ... especially when it emerges that this killing is probably the work of either the family or a close friend of the victim. As Lambert and Hook probe the temperaments of those who were closest to the dead man, J. M. Gregson reveals his customary sure grasp of dialogue and motive. Somewhere among these likable, even admirable, men and women, a murderer is watching events unfold. The pace of the investigation is swift, and the solution both unexpected and intriguing.