In September 1926, the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher
visits Sybil Sutherby, a school friend now living in
Derbyshire as the confidential secretary to a novelist.
Suspecting that something is seriously amiss, Sybil has
asked Daisy to discretely investigate. Upon arrival, Daisy
finds a household of relatives and would-be suitors living
off the hospitality of Humphrey Birtwhistle, who had been
supporting them through his thrice-yearly, pseudonymous
Westerns. When he took ill, though, Sybil took over writing
them while he recovered, only to see the sales increase.

Now, she fears that someone in the household is poisoning
Birtwhistle to keep him ill and Sybil writing the
better-paying versions. But before Daisy can even get
decently underway, Humphrey Birtwhistle dies under
suspicious circumstances and Daisy now faces a death to
untangle, a house full of suspects and a Scotland Yard
detective husband who is less than pleased at this turn of
events.