In Woods's 47th novel about the London barrister Antony Maitland, he and his wife Jenny are on holiday in a Yorkshire village. The residents are outraged by the strangulation deaths of three young women, cases in which Antony reluctantly involves himself at the request of the Maitlands' hostess, Emma Anstey. Her nephew Stephen is the solicitor for a friend, Peter Dutton, officially the prime suspect. Fiercely on the side of a local lad, however, the villagers threaten to lynch a newcomer, reclusive Mr. Wainwright, and Antony has to act quickly to save the scapegoat's life.

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