Andrew Basnett

Elizabeth Ferrars

Retired botanist Professor Andrew Basnett expects a quiet stay in an Oxfordshire village while he researches a biography of an obscure seventeenth-century scholar. Instead, a history of unsolved murder, suspicion, and blackmail unsettles the picturesque community—especially when a fresh killing recalls the death of Charles Hewison years earlier. As a snowstorm cuts off the village and old secrets come under scrutiny, Basnett finds his scholarly curiosity drawn into a dangerous investigation. Combining classic English village mystery with sharp observation and an atmospheric sense of place, the novel introduces an appealing amateur sleuth in a richly deceptive setting.