Cotswolds inhabitants are used to inclement weather, but the night sky is especially foggy as Rory and Molly Devere, the new vicar and his wife, drive slowly home from a dinner party in their village of Sumpton Harcourt. They strain to see the road ahead--and then suddenly brake, screeching to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights, a body hangs from a gnarled tree at the edge of town. Margaret Darby, an elderly spinster, has been...

Sleuth Agatha Raisin, rendered half-bald by a revengeful hairdresser, travels to a British seaside town to recuperate. But her holiday is spoiled by the murder of two local witches.