A notice in the local newspaper announces that a murder will occur at Little Paddocks at a specified time. Neighbours arrive expecting a game, but the lights fail, a masked intruder enters and real shots are fired.
Miss Marple investigates a household shaped by rationing, displaced people, uncertain identities and the altered social structure of post-war Britain. The novel uses forged personal histories and the decline of inherited familiarity to show why villagers can no longer assume that they know where their neighbours came from or who has a legitimate claim to property.
Jacqueline Winspear
20 books
Rhys Bowen
53 books