Septimus Finch, C.I.D. Inspector, is prodded into seeing if there is any truth in seeming threats on the writer, Winifred Gore , and, when he finds a body in a snowbound car en route, he settles into the affairs of the Devonshire town. The history of a house, the dissolution of a marriage, the clues in old diaries, a medium and a refugee from an asylum create a pretty pother for sleuthing. Practised.