When the door opened and he came out, there came with him the stench of
a dead thing, the sweet, sulfurous, warm, rotten, chicken smell that
only ever comes from unburied flesh. A dead body is found in a locked
house. It has been stabbed in a frenzy, the hands and feet bound, the
skull smashed, false teeth knocked from its jaws. Blood pools around the
corpse and drips from the staircase. Yet nothing is missing: money and
valuables remain untouched. Who could have murdered an old woman in such
a horrifying way? And why? This is the mystery facing Sergeant John
Fraser and Detective Lieutenant Trench when wealthy spinster Miss Jean
Milne is murdered in the quiet seaside town of Broughty Ferry. Yet,
despite an abundance of clues and apparent witnesses, the investigation
proves troublesome: suspects are elusive and Miss Milne herself is found
to be far from a model of propriety. And when sensational headlines put
pressure on the police force to find a culprit, Fraser and Trench must
work fast to prevent the wrong man from going to the gallows. But will
they ever unravel the secret life and curious death of Miss Jean Milne?
