When Mallory Lawson’s aunt dies and leaves him her beautiful house in Forbes Abbot it allows him to take early retirement from his appalling teaching job in London and brings his wife the chance to realise her dream of starting her own company. Life will be so much gentler and more straightforward in the country, won’t it?

But Forbes Abbot village, for all its old-fashioned charm, is not quite the close-knit community it appears to be. And on occasion the little differences and squabbles can become downright violent. What causes the most unease throughout the village residents is Dennis Brinkley’s hobby. Everyone agrees that a man should have a hobby to keep him out of mischief and from under his wife’s feet: a nice bit of DIY, gardening, bowls or snooker, mysterious activities in the potting shed. But Brinkley’s is something much more than a hobby. A matter, even, of life and death.

No one – not even the local medium - could possibly have predicted murder. Except, of course, for Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. He has encountered many intriguing cases in his years on the force, and the case of the ghost in the killing machine is one to test even the most experienced of detectives. With a wonderfully rich cast of characters, Caroline Graham tells an extraordinary and gripping story in what is probably her finest novel to date.