Detection unlimited

It was a hot June evening, and young Haswell had just motored the lovely Abby Dearham back from Thornden's social event of the week. All of the village uppercrust had come to the Haswells' tennis party--the Squire, the Vicar, the sharp-tongued heir to five centuries of local real estate. But Sampson Warrenby had declined, and no one was sorry. Why this charmless social-climber was invited was beyond Abby. Had he some sinister hold on the social leaders of Thornden? All joking was cut short when a wild-eyed girl came running down the lane. For it was Warrenby's niece, announcing he was dead.

Slumped on a seat under an oak tree is old Sampson Warrenby, with a bullet through his brain. He is discovered by his niece Mavis, who is just one of ten people in the village in the running for chief suspect, having cause to dislike Warrenby intensely. Add to this the fact that Warrenby was blackmailing someone, and Chief Inspector Hemingway has his work cut out for him. Everybody in the village is ready to tell Chief Inspector who did it. Could the murderer have been the dead man's niece? Or perhaps it was the other town solicitor? The couple at the farm had a guilty secret-what was it? And why is it someone else actually wants to be the prime suspect? Only Hemingway can uncover which of the ten has turned hatred into murder.