DIED ON A RAINY SUNDAY

The ill-concealed hostility of the new household help (the tight-lipped gardener McGregor and his babysitter wife Myfanwy) and her husband Graham's suspicious lack of concern are enough to make Jane increasingly panicky. But she doesn't gauge the full seriousness of the situation until she comes home to find Graham murdered on the lawn and her best friend thrown into the weir. By then of course it's all over, with just time enough to be rescued by TV star Tom Roland (whom Jane should have married in the first place). The ambience is one of proper British horror; but younger readers may find it hard to empathize with Jane's maternal guilt over leaving her children to go back to work (and her resultant passivity) and seasoned mystery fans will know that it would have been good husbandry to send Myfanwy packing the day she broke the Spode teapot.