When local housewife Simone Hollingsworth doesn't show up for bell-ringing practice, nobody even raises an eyebrow, let alone suspect anything sinister.

However, after her suspicious neighbours, the elderly Brockleys, notice her husband digging holes in his garden late one night, they call in Chief Inspector Barnaby for help unearthing his dark secrets.

"[1] Kirkus Reviews noted: Graham writes in an old-fashioned way—with leisurely grace, ironic wit, real-seeming characters, ongoing suspense, and a corker of a plot.

"[2] Book critic David Pitt in Booklist, said that the "seemingly typical British small-town mystery ends as an eyebrow-raising shocker.

"[3] The novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson into the fourth episode of Midsomer Murders, starring (alongside regulars John Nettles, Jane Wymark, Laura Howard and Daniel Casey) Lesley Vickerage as Simone, Michele Dotrice, Peter Jones, Rosalind Ayres, Roger Allam, Tessa Peake-Jones, David Daker and Eleanor Summerfield.