Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry and go to spend their honeymoon at Talboys, an old farmhouse in Hertfordshire which he has bought her as a present.

They plan to spend their honeymoon at Talboys, an old farmhouse in Harriet's native Hertfordshire which Wimsey has bought for her, and they abscond from the wedding reception, evading the assembled reporters.

They gain access and spend their wedding night there, but next morning the former owner, Noakes, is found dead in the cellar with head injuries.

The quiet honeymoon is ruined as a murder investigation begins and the house fills with policemen, reporters, and brokers' men distraining Noakes' hideous furniture.

He was assumed to be well off, but it transpires that he was bankrupt, owed large amounts of money, and was planning to flee his creditors with the cash he had received for Talboys.

He had set a booby trap with a weighted plant pot on a chain, which was triggered by the victim opening the radio cabinet after locking up for the night.

The first, in 1949, was adapted for radio by Peggy Wells, and starred Hugh Latimer as Lord Peter, Rita Vale as Harriet, and Stanley Groome as Bunter.

[14][15] The second, again adapted for radio by Wells, was broadcast in 1965, and featured Angus MacKay as Lord Peter, Dorothy Reynolds as Harriet, and David Monico as Bunter.

(Petherbridge starred as Lord Peter in A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery, a 1987 televised adaptation of all the Harriet Vane novels except Busman's Honeymoon for which the BBC could not obtain the rights).