Pleasantly Trollopian and British, in a fifth Inspector MacDonald yarn- set this time in an outwardly charming cathedral town where the murky undercurrents of gossip and suspicion poison the atmosphere. The death of Mrs. Mayden, arch offender, releases pent up passions, but not until a second death- that of her housekeeper- is MacDonald of Scotland Yard alerted to the possibility of murder. Train reactions, working backwards, tie in two more deaths of recent happening, and in a split second action, a fifth killing is avoided and the murderer found.