an escape from sharing a household with her recently widowed brother Edward and his young daughter. Most of the Linchester residents are invited to Tamsin's 27th birthday party, but the rather uneasy evening is cut short when Patrick is stung while trying to dislodge a wasps' nest. Patrick is put to bed with a sedative by the local GP, Max Greenleaf. The following day he is discovered dead, which Greenleaf finds puzzling until it emerges that Patrick died of heart failure and that he had had rheumatic fever when he was young. Then gossip among the neighbours is fanned by Nancy, the dissatisfied wife of twice-divorced Oliver Gage, and Dr Greenleaf is forced to reconsider. Patrick had not been his regular patient and so he had stood apart from the coroner's investigation. At first suspicion seems to fall on Tamsin, who had gone away following Patrick's death and now returns, brown, rested and cheerful, to put The Hallows up for sale. It is difficult to think how Patrick could have been murdered, however, until Greenleaf remembers that, although Patrick had had four wasp stings when put to bed, there had been an additional swelling on his corpse: a bee sting to which, it turns out, Patrick is allergic. As a result, he had died of anaphylactic shock. Greenleaf, who has been discussing the case with his friend Crispin Marvell, now confronts the bee-keeping Marvell with his solution, a crime to which Marvell confesses. In need of money, he had brought in the bee that killed Patrick overnight and had counted on marrying Tamsin for her income. Faced with prosecution, he asks to take a bath first and slits his veins while there. References 1965 British novels Novels by Ruth Rendell Novels set in Nottinghamshire John Long Ltd books