The Dead Ringer

For whom the bell tolls. . . The idyllic Cotswolds village of Thirk Magna is best known for the medieval church of St. Ethelred and its bells, which are the pride and glory of the whole community. As the bell-ringers get ready for the visit of the dashing Bishop Peter Salver-Hinkley, the whole village is thrown into a frenzy. Meanwhile, Agatha convinces one of the bell-ringers, the charming lawyer Julian Brody, to hire her to investigate the mystery of the bishop’s ex-fiancée: a local heiress, Jennifer Toynby, who went missing years ago and whose body was never found. And now the bodies keep piling up. There’s the corpse of Larry Jensen, a local policeman, who is discovered in the crypt. Millicent Dupin, one of a pair of bell-ringing identical twins, is murdered near the church. And Terry Fletcher, a journalist and (briefly) Agatha’s lover, is found dead in her sitting room! Agatha widens her investigation and very soon her main suspect is the bishop himself. But could he really be behind this series of violent killings, or is it someone who wants to bring him—or Agatha—down? “M. C. Beaton has a foolproof plot for the village mystery.” —The New York Times Book Review