The setting is a classic English country manor house during Christmas 1938. The guests include family, old family friends, a member of parliament with a war hero reputation, and a notorious English adventurer and businessman named David Campbell-Scott. Throughout the celebrations and niceties, there are undercurrents of rancour and tension; and in the bright, snowy morning, Campbell-Scott is found in a pool of blood in the snow, shot dead. Although the local, plodding constable feels it is a case of suicide, Hugh Gaveston has experienced all the tension in the house and sets out to investigate.

This is a charming and fun romp in the English countryside, in the style of Agatha Christie, and I loved it. All the classic characters are present: the upper crust hosts, the quarreling siblings, the unapproachable Englishman with the stiff upper lip, the oily politician, and the cousin with a hankering to be an amateur detective. Events unfold at a quick pace and of course the murderer is revealed in the classic Poirot/Miss Marple fashion at the end. It is as satisfying as a good Christmas pudding, and I think the Queen of Mystery would approve.