Gossip has it that the wealthy widow Edith Rossiter's scheming daughter is pressuring her to sign over a substantial inheritance against her wishes when Mrs. Rossiter--and her sleeping pills--disappear.

The sleepy seaside town of Taviscombe has more than its share of gossips and schemers. It also has Mrs. Sheila Malory, a widow whose gift for judging character and unmasking murderers is as impressive as her knowledge of 19th-century literature. Mrs. Malory's sleuthing talents are tested once again when she comes upon the body of one of her friends, a sweet elderly lady. Miss Graham's death by poison is quite convenient for a local doctor of dubious...

Sheila's friend, Eva Jackson, has returned to Taviscombe. After she decides to compile a book of her late husband's unpublished works, a fire mysteriously breaks out in the garage. Then Eva meets a supicious end, leading Sheila to wonder if there's a killer at large.

The sudden death of a schoolteacher at a prestigious English prep school sends Mrs. Malory to the school as a substitute teacher, in which role she becomes suspicious about the teacher's untimely death and about the strange behavior of her eerily obedient students.

Sheila Malory's childhood friend has hit hard times, and is desperate enough to try selling the family mansion out from under his stubborn elderly nanny. Unfortunately, the estate can't be sold unless the old woman moves or expires. When she suddenly turns up dead and his much-hated brother is poisoned, Sheila's long-time companion becomes the primary suspect. But she soon finds that things aren't as simple as they look, and even those she trusts...

Middle-aged widow and amateur sleuth Mrs. Sheila Malory probes a hotbed of small village animosities, betrayal, and murder after a mysterious killer bludgeons insufferable local poet Adrian Palgrave to death during the Taviscombe Festival.