Village Affairs

Ambitious Scotland Yard detective Sergeant Jack Gibbons hears about his latest case---the death of a middle-aged widower in Chipping Chedding, a small town in the English Cotswolds---and can't believe his good luck. His best friend, wealthy man-about-town Phillip Bethancourt, just so happens to be in Chipping Chedding already, accompanying his model girlfriend on a fashion shoot on a country estate. Since Phillip has helped Jack on numerous occasions, indulging his interest in a good mystery by aiding Jack in his investigations, it's natural for him to help them figure out what happened to Charlie Bingham.

Though at first Bingham's death appears to have been accident, tracing his movements on the evening of his death proves to be more difficult for Jack and Phillip than they expected, and they begin to suspect foul play. It seems Bingham was going to visit his girlfriend—but no one in the village, from the vicar to Charlie's chess partner (and Phillip's distant cousin) to Charlie's neighbors, knows who she is. And when it turns out that Bingham was in fact a very wealthy businessman who hid his enormous wealth from everyone around him, suspects begin to pop up, including his estranged daughter, who was in London on the evening in question, and an unhappy business partner who has no alibi.

Cassandra Chan shows her mastery of the traditional English mystery in this second charming novel to feature the investigative duo of Gibbons and Bethancourt, a modern-day Peter Wimsey.