Mary Tant begins her ninth classic murder mystery at a massive party marking the anniversary of the Spanish Armada. The plot is as exciting as ever, with vivid characters and an intriguing West Country setting - all the ingredients of a Rossington novel - ending with a gripping climax.

It promised to be a special summer's evening in the West Country, this inauguration of a series of events commemorating the defeat of the Spanish Armada. It began with a party on an island, a jewellery exhibition, and a gathering of the Rossington family and their friends. Anna Evesleigh, the ebullient actress, was looking forward to it. And she hadn't told her companion, the irascible archaeologist Mike Shannon, that she had a hidden agenda. But sudden death disrupted the party. It seemed as if it would put a spoke in Anna's plans too. But neither she nor her friends knew that death was to occur again and again. They moved between recitals and village fetes, basking in the sun, enjoying chilled wine and homemade cakes, and death moved with them. Anna's friend, botanist Lucy Rossington, is absorbed with her own future plans and her deteriorating marriage to Hugh Carey, an increasingly successful publisher. Her life is taking her far away from the West Country, her finger has slipped from the pulse of local affairs, but gradually her love for this place of her birth draws her back into its rhythm. Will she see what is wrong in time to save one of her friends from the end that is intended for them?