Tom Barnaby hears about a suspicious series of fatal cardiac arrests out of the blue in Lawnside residential nursing home from his jolly aunt Alice Bly, who gets ever more frightened. All deaths are ruled natural from old age by the associated local GP, Dr. Clive Warnford, who has a candid affair with the administrator, who may profit from helping seniors with their bank affairs. There's a wave of thefts, the work of a womanizing bon-vivant resident who pawns everything. Maurice 'Mungo' Mortimer stays in a nearby hotel while settling the estate if his mother, who died a day after their loud row over er refusal to bail out his ailing business. Another cheerful resident retreats suspiciously when he ears that Troy, who sits through all gossip, reveals being a cop.
—KGF Vissers