If a blackmail letter drives a man to suicide, is the sender guilty of murder? Yes, says Oliver Swithin, author of bestselling Finsbury the Ferret children s stories and amateur sleuth, who is on holiday in an ancient village. A midnight streak with his naked girlfriend Scotland Yard s Effie Strongitham abruptly ends in the discovery of a corpse. Retired radiobroadcaster Dennis Breedlove has hanged himself from the old gibbet. Evidence suggests blackmail may have driven this celebrity to suicide. Irresistibly intrigued, Oliver believes discovering the dead man s secret will lead to the identity of the blackmailer. But in Britain today, when shame is a ticket to fame, why suicide? What if it wasn t? When the mystery abruptly turns inside out, black-clad strangers attack Oliver in the night. The Vicar behaves strangely. So do the village s five unmarried Bennet sisters, a mysterious monk, the persistent, self-effacing Underwood Tooth, and Oliver s Uncle Tim, Effie s superior at the Yard and a part-time Shakespearean actor. Plus Oliver s aunt and his mother. Who else might play a role in This Private Plot? Two William Shakespeares? It s time to put the laugh back into slaughter with the long-awaited third chapter in the career of Oliver Swithin. Yet under the clever wordplay and bawdy jokes lies an inventive and, yes, scholarly plot."