An elegant, smoothly written piece that always diverts. Thanks to a considerable inheritance, elderly Beattie Weyman is able to purchase Ashbourne House and live her dream of converting it into luxury apartments. With heady delight, she hopes to fill her home with congenial and stimulating residents, unprepared for the complicated relations and mysteries that eventually unfold under her roof. On a cold November morning, Detective Superintendent Mike Yeadings and his team are called to a pub car park in Henley-on-Thames where a woman's body has been found. As they examine the body, Detective Sergeant Rosemary Zycynski, resident of Beattie's at Ashbourne House, finds that work has invaded her new home. To her horror, the dead woman is her next-door neighbour, Sheila Winter. A quiet, professional owner of a local garden centre, Sheila lived with her ageing mother and didn't appear to have much in her life beyond her work. So, the discovery of her body naked, wrapped only in a black fur coat, is a shock to all who knew her. Could one of Zycynski's new neighbours at Ashbourne House hold the key to the mystery? An adroitly constructed puzzler.
