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It's not the best of thrillers but it does make you think about the repercussions of gossip. In fact, gossip and slandering deteriorated one of the characters so emotionally that it affected him physically. It also drew importance to the negativity of purposely isolating yourself from people. Colonel Luckyer-Fox is mourning the death of his wife. With the coroner passing her death off as natural causes, it's his neighbours that set the malicious rumour-mongering of him murdering her and of having an incestuous relationship with his own daughter. He assumes that it's his son, using a distorted voice, out of the 3 callers and therefore does not react to it. Instead, he asks his lawyer to find his granddaughter who was given up for adoption to hide the result of a teenage pregnancy by their own daughter. Hence, the rumour of the colonel giving up the child to remove the stigma of him fathering the child. Nancy, the granddaughter, is reluctant to begin a relationship with her biological family but is intrigued by her grandfather's character - she is also in the army just like him and shares many characteristics with him. On top of all this, travellers arrive and settle on unclaimed land which is a nuisance for the "rich" folk of Dorset. The rest of the novel is Mark and Nancy trying to piece things together as to why Ailsa Luckyer-Fox died and why the neighbours are so adamant in blaming the colonel for her death. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a short mystery with not too much of suspense.