In a remote Lakeland dale, whitewashed cottages nestle in lush gardens, sheep roam the fells and the Rutting Beck runs crystal clear. In short, it is a Cumbrian paradise. But Melinda Pink, visiting on holiday, knows better. She knows that yard-thick walls do more than shelter their occupants from the elements; they can also muffle screams. For there are serpents in paradise; dead sheep go unburied, tax dodges and benefit fraud are rife; the proprietor of the tearooms falls prey to a rumour of salmonella poisoning - and then the interfering village busybody is found tangled among the reeds of the flooded beck.

Aged now, arthritic but insatiably curious, it is Miss Pink who takes up the cudgels on the behalf of the other intrepid local old folk - both alive and dead, and - as it soon transpires - of other, younger victims. Underage sex and extramarital affairs are not confined to the inner cities. Against a backdrop of a stark and beautiful countryside is woven a thread of love and lust, of betrayal and revenge, and if it is Miss Pink who detects a murderer in the midst of a small community, the problem is solved by the last victim, and justice neatly - if horribly - executed.