Book excerpt: Detective Superintendent Charles Blower goes to Benfield House, a renovated Georgian country house in Kent, at the behest of his good friend Alex Pike who, with his wife Barrie, is author of a series of detective novels. Both are keen amateur detectives. This is an intriguing case for Blower since the crime, the unusual stabbing of a woman conveyancer surveying an apartment in the house whose owner works abroad, appears motiveless. It is set up to look accidental. However, his intuition and experience as a Metroplolitan Police Detective, leads him to work with the Kent County Police Inspector who originally dealt with the crime scene. Through this association, and the eruption of a series of burglaries in the county, Blower begins to wonder if burglary was a factor in the womans murder. Some dubious characters, including the houseowners son, recently imprisoned for aggravated burglary, come under suspicion. It takes persistence, application and lateral thinking for several burglars, and the murderer, to be apprehended. The Annual Fete on the village green fronting Benfield House, provides the backdrop to an eventful outcome, which is concluded after a car chase through the Kent countryside to its coast.