[1] Her series of four murder stories written between 1980 and 1999 centered on a group of young barristers practicing in Lincoln's Inn, narrated by a Hilary Tamar, a professor of medieval law whose gender is never specified, who fills the role of detective.

Their primary setting is the second floor of 62 New Square at Lincoln's Inn, where four young junior barristers have their chambers: Michael Cantrip, Desmond Ragwort, Selena Jardine and Timothy Shepherd.

[7] While the last named only appears sporadically, taxes barrister Julia Larwood, who works in the adjacent premises, is a regular visitor and is in effect the fifth member of the group.

These characters are in some ways thinly drawn (Selena is highly organized and efficient, Julia is clumsy and chaotic, Cantrip is casual and modern, Ragwort is elegant and conservative), never communicating in anything other than an ironic tone, so that even when they are in deadly danger the atmosphere remains uniformly light-hearted.

Professor Tamar, a former tutor of Timothy Shepherd, also acts as the main detective,[8] although other characters make contributions to the eventual solutions.

[7] This distancing is amplified by Caudwell's strategy of not specifying Tamar's gender and never specifying the reason for the strong bond which the character enjoys with the young advocates.

The plots are intricate, carefully realised, and strongly tied to the locations chosen, these being Venice, Corfu, Sark and an English village.

She was particularly popular among other legal professionals, including American jurist Robert Bork, who was once quoted as saying, "In my opinion, there can't be too many Sarah Caudwell novels".