Reprint. Originally published: Boston : Little Brown, 1981.

"The first Richard Jury novel"--Cover.

Includes an excerpt from The grave Maurice, by Martha Grimes, c2002.

"At the Man with a Load of Mischief, they found a dead man with his head stuck in a beer keg. At the Jack and Hammer, another body was stuck out of the beam of the pub's sign, replacing the mechanical man who kept the time. Two pubs. Two murders. One Scotland Yard inspector called in to help. Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury arrives in Long Piddleton and finds everyone in the postcard village looking outside of town for the killer. Except for Melrose Plant. A keen observer of human nature, he points Jury in the right direction: toward to darkest parts of his neighbors' hearts..."--Cover, p. 4.