St Cedd's church fete had been held in the grounds of Martingale for generations. As if organizing stalls and presiding over luncheon, the bishop and the tea-tent were not enough for Mrs Maxie, later that mellow July afternoon her son Stephen sprang the news of his engagement. By morning, Sally Jupp, her new parlourmaid - unmarried mother and minor village scandal - was dead.
Investigating murder at the Elizabethan manor house, Detective Chief-Inspector Adam Dalgliesh is intrigued to find more than one fiancee among the suspects - such are the complicated passions beneath the calm surface of English village life . . .
