
<b>In the quaint English village of Little Biddington, Devon, life is as peaceful as a cup of tea on a summer's day—until murder turns up at the local dog show</b><br /><br />Recently widowed and struggling to find her place in a world without her husband, Lady Matilda Farnworth reluctantly agrees to judge the village's annual dog show, accompanied by her late husband's mischievous basset hound, Wellington, and her well-meaning but comically confused companion, Hetty Trelawny. But the event takes a dark turn when the show's front-runner, an elegant Pekingese, is discovered beside the strangled body of its owner, the spirited socialite Adelaide Forsythe, her own dog's lead around her neck.<br /><br />With the village in shock and the local authorities baffled, Lady Matilda finds herself drawn into the investigation. From a disgruntled military man with a penchant for spaniels to a spinster with a sharp tongue and a secret to hide, it seems everyone in Little Biddington has something to gain—and lose—from Adelaide's demise. But as Lady Matilda digs deeper, she uncovers more than she bargained for, including a tangled web of jealousy, deceit, and a decades-old affair.<br /><br /><i>Can Lady Matilda, with a little help from Hetty's malapropisms and Wellington's keen nose for trouble, uncover the truth before the killer strikes again?</i>