Cordelia Gray, head of Pryde's Detective Agency, finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery when she sets out to investigate the apparent suicide of a young Cambridge student.

Harriet Vane and her beloved Lord Peter find themselves working on the same case when a body is found after their town's first air-raid drill.

Dennis Luxford's past catches up with him when he receives an anonymous note demanding that he admit to fathering the daughter of an up-and-coming politician who refuses to allow the information to be made public.

Lori Shepard investigates whether sabotage is responsible for the series of odd accidents befalling Calvin Malvern, who is acting as King Wilfred at the village of Finch's annual faire.

Lori Shepherd, freed from the restrictions of motherhood by the arrival of the beautiful nanny Francesca Sciaparelli, must call upon her ghostly Aunt Dimity for help when she becomes caught in the middle of a controversy that threatens to destroy the village as well as her nanny's budding romance with archaeologist Adrian Culver.