Margery Allingham's Mr Campion finds himself a fish out of water when
he investigates a murder in a Yorkshire mining village.
Following the death of the senior English master in a tragic road
accident, Mr Campion's son Rupert and daughter-in-law Perdita are
helping out at Ash Grange School for Boys, where Perdita's godfather is
headmaster. While Perdita is directing the end-of-term play, a musical
version of Dr Faustus, Rupert is tackling the school's rugby football
team - and both of them are finding their allotted tasks more of a
challenge than they had anticipated.
When the headmaster telephones Albert Campion to inform him that Rupert
has been arrested, Mr Campion heads to Yorkshire to get to the bottom of
the matter. There are no secrets in the traditional mining village of
Denby Ash, he's told - but on uncovering reports of a disruptive
poltergeist, a firebrand trade unionist, a missing conman and a local
witch, he finds that's far from being the case. And was the English
master, Mr Browne's, death really an accident . . .?