
When ambitious hotelier Eric Schucmacher announces he is to turn Springwood Hall near the market town of Bamford into a smart Cotswold country-house hotel the news is greeted by a chorus of local disapproval led by the redoubtable Hope Mapple. So the gala opening to which all the disaffected parties have been invited promises to be quite an event
- not least because the amply upholstered Hope Mapple is planning a disruptive streak protest. But Hopes lightning dash is unexpectedly upstaged by a far more shocking event: the discovery of a recently murdered body on the premises. The victim is a local woman & for Chief Inspectory Markby & his guest Meredith Mitchell what had promised to be a diverting summer treat suddenly turns into a horribly serious affair.. .