Burlington Public Library

Jim Henderson is one of six guests summoned by the mysterious Edwin Carson, a collector of precious stones, to a weekend party at his country house, Thrackley. The house is gloomy and forbidding but the party is warm and hospitable except for the presence of Jacobson, the sinister butler. The other guests are wealthy people draped in jewels; Jim cannot imagine why he belongs in such company. After a weekend of adventure, with attempted robbery and...

As rural England slowly emerges from the sorrow of World War I, a particularly vicious attack on a household in a small Surrey village leaves five butchered bodies and no explanation for the killings. A Scotland Yard inspector investigates.

The Reverend Francis Oughterard merely longs for a quiet life far from his bishopś overview. Instead, he becomes entangled in a nightmare world of predatory female parishioners, officious policemen, and accidental murder. It is up to Maurice, the cat, and Bouncer, the dog, to save him.

"Constance Harding's comfortable corner of Surrey is her own little piece of heaven. She lives in a chocolate box house complete with an Aga and a parrot, her bell-ringing club is set to dominate the intercounty tournament, and she is sure she can get her son, Rupert, to settle down if she just writes the perfect personal ad for him. Naturally, things turn disastrous rather quickly. And she's about to learn that her perfect home conceals a scandal...