Claire Barclay's tourists are exploring the cobbled streets of York. Her American ladies from Tucson, the couple from Bristol and the couple from London appear fascinated by Claire's explanations of the unique architecture. All except Phillip, a younger, single man who disappears-again. Claire spots him entering the chocolate factory and races down the stairs, suspecting Phillip has headed for the kitchens, and trips over the body of a security guard. She doesn't see any connection between the body and her tourists until Mark, her loving partner and a Detective Inspector with the Major Crimes Investigation Team, tells her Phillip is an undercover Scotland Yard detective and on a job. Claire removes the group from the city of York quickly and drives them north to the Yorkshire Moors, a vast land of almost bleak wilderness and the setting of many mystery novels. She stops for a picnic at the famous Ralph's Cross where moorland, green with springtime heather, stretches for miles. Her bucolic plans are interrupted when her American ladies report the sudden death of Phillip in the surrounding bog. Mark tells her Phillip was on the trail of a drug distribution scheme. But will Claire be able to keep these ladies who are intelligent, determined and expert mystery novel readers out of a messy situation with the murderer? Claire has high hopes that she will be able to do so without endangering them all.
Claire Barclay is enthusiastic about her British Mystery Book Tour business. She enjoys taking her guests, usually from America, to the settings of mystery novels where bodies are long dead. Her neighbor's plea for help to deal with a recently murdered wellknown author unsettles her. She leaves the body to the police and takes her guests to Cornwall, including a British tourist who is far too interested in the dead author. She can't avoid the murder investigation because her lover Mark is the detective with the Major Investigations Team examining the death. The dead author set his mystery in Cornwall, and Claire learns more about the murder as the people of Cornwall talk to her. She begins to understand the independent nature of the Cornish people and the conflict of the traditional smuggling ethos with the tragedy of the modern-day drug smuggling trade. Claire's reluctant sense of justice for the murdered man demands action, so she sets out to find who is responsible.
Claire Barclay finds a home in England after twenty-five years of travelling. She has money, a tour guide business and ambitions. She is shocked by the murder in her quiet village, but is not going to give up on the haven she has finally found. With the help of her sister, the barracuda barrister, her new dog, new friends and the unexpected stimulus of a new man in her life, she deals with suspicion, confusion and threats.
