Summary

When elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed only in nightclothes and with blood stains on the ground near her body, the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy, landowning husband, Colonel James Lockyer-Fox.

When elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed only in nightclothes and with blood stains on the ground near her body, the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy, landowning husband, Colonel James Lockyer-Fox. A Coronerâs inquest gives a verdict of ânatural causesâ but the gossip surrounding James refuses to go away. Why? Because heâs guilty? Or because resentful women in the isolated Dorset village where he lives rules the roost? Shenstead is a place of too few people and too many secrets. Why have James and Ailsa cut their children out of their will? What happened in the past to create such animosity within the family? Any why is James so desperate to find his illegitimate grandchild? Friendless and alone, his reclusive behavior begins to alarms his London-based solicitor, Mark Ankerton, whose concern deepens when he discovers that James has become the victim of a relentless campaign which accuses him of far worse than the death of his wife. Allegations which he refuses to challenge....Why? Because theyâre a motive for murder....?