Retired headmaster Malcolm Chance and his wife, Frances, have settled down in the quiet village of Ravenswood, where the greatest excitement revolves around the newest production of the local dramatic society.
Professor Alistair Dirke thought himself a reasonable man - he could scarcely acknowledge the suspicion that was beginning to grow in his mind every time he saw his wife Rose with Paul Eckleston .
When Meg Jeacock let out the furnished cottage next to her house she did not care that her new tenant had certain rather sinister characteristics - he'd paid three months' rent in advance.
When Andrew Basnett meets his nephew by chance at the seaside, he finds himself drawn into a social whirlwind that culminates in an invitation to dinner at the home of novelist Simon Amory.
Retired professor Andrew Basnett had been at a loose end since he'd finished writing his book, and a country visit with friends seemed just the diversion he needed.
The dog was old and unappealing - which may have been why Virginia Freer decided to adopt him; that and the fact that he had belonged to her mother's old friend Helen Lovelock, who had recently died.
When Virginia Freer spends a weekend with her friends the Boscotts the last person she expects to meet is the lying, light-fingered charmer who was her husband.
While her faithful friend Virginia watched by the bedside, rich old Mrs Arliss passed away peacefully in her sleep - and left behind a legacy of violent death.
Martha Crayle trusted everyone, so when the frightened girl arrived at the National Guild for the Welfare of Unmarried Mothers on that drizzly, cold autumn afternoon, Martha gladly took her to the spacious Victorian house where in harder times she had taken in lodgers.
When Holly Dunthorne returns home to the village of Roydon Saint Agnes she finds that a friend, Marcus Meriden, has been accused of beating up an old man.
When Toby Dyke and his companion, George, get caught in torrential rain one night, they are surprised to find that they are not the only ones out in such a fierce storm: Edgar Prees, aging botanist of prestige and reputation, is attempting to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff top.
Christie Opara, the only woman on the DA's Special Investigation Squad, is assigned by her boss to shadow his daughter to a civil rights demonstration.
When Sergeant Brian O'Malley's prostitute lover pushes him from a window, his friends in the police cover up the details and give him a hero's funeral.
A young couple, the Trents, arrive on the lonely islet of Ruffa - where a large house has been lent to them for part of their honeymoon - and stumble upon mystery.
