Caroline Graham

When Lionel Lawrence opens his rambling rectory to rehabilitate young offenders he has no idea of the consequences, least of all that they will include blackmail and murder. Chief Inspector Barnaby has a good idea of the identity of the violent individual responsible, now all he needs is evidence.

Badger's Drift is an ideal English village, complete with vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster with a nice line in homemade cookies. But when the spinster dies suddenly, her best friend kicks up an unseemly fuss, loud enough to attract the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. And when Barnaby and his eager-beaver deputy start poking around, they uncover a swamp of ugly scandals and long-suppressed resentments seething below the picture-postcard prettiness.

Backstage at the Causton Amateur Dramatic Society's production of Amadeus, nerves are fraying. Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby is in attendence as a member of the audience, but soon finds himself centre stage when one of the cast members is found murdered.

"Having agreed to manor-sit rich Aunt Maude's stately Madingley Grange, Simon Hannaford and his sister Laurie decide to put the gloomy old estate to profitable use. So they hire a bogus boozing butler and a cross-dressing maid, and assemble a motley group of well-heeled eccentrics for a weekend of staged recreational murder and mayhem. But the innocent game goes awry when a singularly obnoxious guest is assassinated for real. Did the butler do it? Are the family jewels in jeopardy? And most important, will the hapless victim have the good sense to remain dead?"--BOOK COVER.