This story melds old characters and new, with Campion and Amanda returning to her home village of Pontisbright, following the death of a character met in one of the first novels, and bringing along with this Charlie Luke, the powerhouse detective who has been central to more recent novels.Allingham's strength with characterisation and odd people is on display here, along with some amusing fallibility of Campion, who is immensely dismayed at Luke's infatuation with an "old-fashioned" local girl.