1. An Air That Kills
Workmen demolishing an old cottage in Lydmouth break through a concealed cupboard and find the skeleton of an infant inside a box. Objects buried with the remains appear to place the death in the early nineteenth century, but a second death suggests that the secret may…
2. The Mortal Sickness
A parish spinster is found bludgeoned to death in St John’s church, and the valuable Lydmouth chalice has vanished. Suspicion falls on the troubled new vicar, whose household already provides the town with material for gossip and judgement. Jill Francis becomes involved before she can remain…
3. The Lover of the Grave
After the coldest night of the year, a schoolmaster is found hanging from a tree outside a village near Lydmouth, his body arranged in circumstances that could indicate suicide, murder or a fatal sexual encounter. Jill Francis is drawn into the affairs of the small public…
4. The Suffocating Night
As news of the Korean War reaches Lydmouth, a reporter is murdered at the Bathurst Arms and families squatting in a former military camp face eviction. New evidence also revives the unresolved disappearance of a local teenager, linking present violence with a case the town has…
5. Where Roses Fade
Mattie Harris is found drowned in the river after a night of drinking, although those who knew her insist she could not swim. When Lydmouth’s most prominent citizens press for a quick verdict of accidental death, Jill Francis becomes convinced that the waitress’s apparent insignificance is…
6. Death’s Own Door
Rufus Moorcroft, a respected widower with a distinguished war record, is found dead in his summerhouse and the death is judged a suicide. Jill Francis and Richard Thornhill independently find evidence that the explanation is incomplete and that the key lies in a charged summer before…
7. Call the Dying
A severe winter closes around Lydmouth as a séance, a dead woman and a bitter circulation war between two provincial newspapers disturb the town’s appearance of tranquillity. Small incidents involving a lorry driver, an office boy and a toyshop begin to form a pattern of coercion…
8. Naked to the Hangman
A retired police officer is found dead in the ruins of Lydmouth Castle, and suspicion settles on Inspector Richard Thornhill. The accusation revives his service as a young policeman in Palestine during the final months of the British Mandate, when he witnessed and committed acts that…