Another day in the life of Detective Inspector Colin Knowles and another murder. Bingo the retriever has been finding bodies again. This time someone left a sword in the back of Edward Pritchard in the local monastery. Pritchard used to work at nearby Manton Rempville Hall as a gardener although all he seemed to cultivate was reasons for people not to like him.

As luck would have it there's a house party at the hall so there are plenty of suspects. Knowles inspects the people, the libraries, the studies, and the not-so-secret passage of this old hall in an attempt to find out who murdered Pritchard. Bells, owls, and ironic topiary all play a part in his investigation.

Slowly Knowles weeds out the suspects until there can be only one person who did it.

The Manton Rempville Murders is the second in the Inspector Knowles Mysteries and reacquaints the reader with Knowles and his Detective Sergeant Rod Barnes, who were first introduced in The Goat Parva Murders.