When Harley Street doctor Michael Prendergast escapes London for the sleepy Essex village of Steeple Tollesbury, he expects little more than quiet days at the ancient Old Malting House and a visit from his friend Henry Wilson, a C.I.D. superintendent traveling incognito. Instead, the village's faded charm, comic gossip, and old-world stillness begin to hide a growing unease, especially when a flashy racing car, a suspicious stranger, and a stream of local scandals suggest that this placid place may be less harmless than it seems. Michael's holiday turns darker when the body of William Meston, a gloomy partner in the Warden stockbroking firm, is pulled from the river. Though Dr. Kershaw calls it drowning, Michael's medical eye points to a broken neck, and the investigation quickly becomes a tangle of conflicting theories, unreliable witnesses, and private grudges. As Wilson probes deeper, Mrs. Meston's sudden claim that her husband died by suicide only thickens the fog. Then an unexpected witness, the witty tramp Jerry Machin, reveals a late-night scene near Sir Felix Lewis's boathouse involving the supposedly absent John Loring and a secret meeting with a woman, pushing the mystery toward a web of hidden motives, deception, and murder. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.