There is no shortage of suspects, as the Suffolk police point out. Quennell's neglected wife is deeply in love with an artist - a man moreover, who's been suspected of murder once before. What about Raymond Tallis, who headed the printing firm until Quennell took his place? Tallis's own family affairs are complex: his brother Arthur drowned in a yachting accident, with Tallis and Quennell both on board at the time, and Tallis then married his brother's widow . . .
In the tranquil Suffolk countryside, scented with heather and sea-breezes, Gently sets to work to disentangle the emotional bonds - the jealousy, love, hatred, and remorse - that enmesh the dead man's family and friends. And he starts by contemplating not just one previous death, but two . . .