Looking for sophisticated and stylish entertainment to stimulate jaded brain-cells? LOOK NO FURTHER! Falconer has shown yet again that he can produce a top-rate whodunnit in the finest British traditions: urbane, cultured and witty.

The peaceful estate of Wichenford Court, in deepest Worcestershire, is convulsed by a bizarre murder which, it is discovered, mirrors in 1959 a murder committed on exactly the same spot in 1791. Inspector Wickfield and his new assistant, Sergeant Holbrook, undertake a baffling investigation in which the killer's tracks are covered so successfully that the case is in danger of remaining unsolved The Buckenham family, who have farmed the estate for centuries, the estate workers, and the gracious and monied Lady Hick-Stevens in the wings, provide the detectives with a spectrum of characters who might all, for one reason or another, have murder in mind.

A suicide before the First World War, a university career cut short by drink and debt, a missed business opportunity, family antagonisms, a threat to jobs on the estate, all give the inspector and his sergeant food for thought – not to mention a headache – until the inspector rumbles the one tiny mistake that leads to the unmasking of the killer. A triumph of literary sophistication!