A moonlit night. A sleeping village. And an unaccountable murder... An English bobbie returning from night patrol finds a corpse in evening dress locked in the stocks on the village green. He identifies the body immediately. Andrew Vereker was not a well-loved man, and narrowing down the suspects is not going to be an easy job. The Vereker family are corrupt and eccentric - and hardly cooperative ... It's another case for the resourceful Superintendent Hannasyde, who sets off on the trail of a killer so cunning that even his consummate powers of detection are tested to their limits... 'Rarely have we seen humour and mystery so perfectly blended' New York Times 'Heyer's characters and dialogue are an abiding delight to me' Dorothy L. Sayers 'Sharp, clear and witty' The New Yorker ‘Ranks alongside such incomparable whodunit authors as Christie, Marsh, Tey and Allingham' San Francisco Chronicle