Murder Among Us (Mitchell and Markby Mystery 4)

When Springwood Hall, near the village of Bamford, is turned into a smart Cotswold country house hotel, a number of noses are put out of joint locally. The Society for the Preservation of Historic Bamford, led by the redoubtable Hope Mapple, objects to the alterations carried out on the venerable building; the Equine Rest Home, whose resources are stretched to breaking point, knows it is only a matter of time before its aged horses and donkeys are evicted from the field lent to them by the Manor estate; and the spurning of the expert gastronomic services of Chief Inspector Markby's brother-in-law Paul Danby in favor of those of a better-known London food critic has provoked outrage in the Danby household. So the gala opening, to which all the disaffected parties have been invited in a gesture of compromise, promises to be quite an event - not least because the amply endowed Hope Mapple is planning a surprise disruptive streak protest. But Hope's lightning dash is unexpectedly upstaged by a far more shocking event: the discovery of a recently murdered body in the wine cellar. The victim is a local woman, and for Chief Inspector Markby and his guest Meredith Mitchell, what had promised to be a diverting summer treat suddenly turns into a horribly serious affair...