The Second World War is drawing to a close. Nicholas Vaughan released from the army after an accident takes refuge in Devon renting a thatched cottage in the beautiful countryside at Mallory Fitzjohn. Hard work and rural peace seem to make this a happy bachelor life. On a nearby farm lives the bored flirtatious June St Cyres an exile from London while her husband is a Japanese POW. June’s presence attracts fashionable visitors of dubious character and threatens to spoil Vaughan’s prized seclusion. When Little Thatch is destroyed in a blaze all Vaughan’s work goes up in smoke and Inspector Macdonald is drafted in to uncover a motive for murder.

Part of the British Library Crime Classics series.