"The fact is, Trahair, some cloud’s come down on ’em all. And it’s damned uncomfortable. That’s as specific as I can be."

All is not well in the English town of Castle-Dinas, a strange un-English-looking, tumbled hill-town, which seemed to have jutted up out of the Middle Ages. Concerned about the brooding atmosphere surrounding his fiancee Ketherine and her family, Jardine is persuaded by his friend Trahair to hire the discreet private detective Philip Tolefree to discover the root of the family's distress and alleviate it if possible. Tolefree's first clue is a confrontation he overhears in the castle dungeon during the town's medieval Feast Day. But when a body is found on Goonbarrow Downs, the London sleuth finds that he has a murder investigation on his hands.

Originally published in 1942, this is a vintage murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction.