Thornford Regis has never been lovelier: larks on the wing, lilacs in bloom, and the May Fayre in full swing. But inside the empty village hall, the huge Japanese o-daiko drum featured in the festivities has been viciously sliced open-- and curled up inside is a bludgeoned body. Father Tom Christmas, still haunted by the tragedy that has left him a widower and his nine-year-old daughter motherless, soon realizes that this idyllic village is not the...

When a skydiving routine for charity results in the death of Hector, Earl of Fairhaven, Father Tom Christmas, investigating the case on behalf of Hector's family who believe that his death was no accident, must come to terms with the secrets of his own past to solve the mystery.