“We’ve got a rare batch of suspects, don’t you think?”

In the immediate aftermath of the second world war, Philip Dolby invites Tolefree to swap the confines of bombed-out London for the idyllic Devon coastal town of Porthgover. But Dolby has an ulterior motive. He wishes Tolefree to turn his professional eye on the situation at Govercombe House, where he is convinced that Frederick Trivett, the husband of an old flame of Dolby’s, is up to no good. Why is Trivett so interested in the Widow Vane and her son Henry? And why is he so intent on marrying his daughter Margaret to Henry, when Mrs. Vane holds Trivett in such unmitigated (but apparently motiveless) loathing?

As Tolefree takes up residence at the Saltmarsh Inn, he hopes that a belated Victory Party at Trivett’s will provide the ideal opportunity to investigate. But events take a tragic turn when Trivett is found shot dead in his study the morning after the party. What was the motive? And why did the patriotic Trivett neglect his coast-watching duty at Carnak Point the night before he was killed?

Originally published in 1948, this is a vintage British murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction.