At a weekend gathering of relatives and friends, Gloria Mundy, a woman from the host’s pre-marital past, turns up unheralded and uninvited, and her visit is followed by a series of disturbances, domestic disagreements and two unrelated accidents. These culminate in the discovery of a charred corpse in the burnt-out dower house in the grounds of the mansion.
Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley has been one of the guests, but only so that she can cast a professional eye over the eccentric, elderly aunt of the hostess, and she is called away before anything untoward or dreadful comes about.
Was Gloria Mundy a witch? What else could explain the mysterious events which follow her unexpected arrival? What else could account for her being seen alive in a London dress shop several weeks after she has been found dead—apparently the victim of murder? With the help of Corin, a young journalist who narrates the story, Dame Beatrice painstakingly pieces together the complicated jigsaw and leaves no stone unturned until she has unearthed the truth.
The setting is the Cotswolds, and the place names, including Uley, with Hetty Pegler’s Tump, and Cleeve Cloud, topped by Belas Knap, are recalled by the author with nostalgic affection.
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“This is the authentic Mitchell frisson.” Philip Larkin