In a remote Lakeland dale whitewashed cottages nestle in lush gardens, sheep roam the fells and the Rutting Beck runs crystal clear: in short, a Cumbrian paradise. But Melinda Pink, visiting on holiday, knows better. She knows that there are serpents in paradise. Yard-thick walls can muffle screams; dead sheep go unburied; tax dodges and benefit fraud are rife; the proprietor of the tearooms falls prey to a rumour of salmonella poisoning—and then the village busybody is found caught up in the jetsam of the flooded beck. Aged, arthritic but insatiably curious, it is Miss Pink who takes up the cudgels on behalf of the locals . . .