Intrigue and murder surround the county fair at Stainton-Meredith. Many people had reason to dislike Canon Nicodemus Hartley-Crump, the elderly, autocratic and lubricious vicar of the parish, but who would kill him? And what, if any, was the connection with his death and the murder by strangulation of an Austrian refugee, governess to some of the local nouveaux riches?

A story as much of how Constable Sadd got his sergeant’s stripes as how Inspector Littlejohn found the murderer.