Mr. Hopjoy, a traveling salesman, has disappeared - to the relief of many husbands, the rage of innumerable creditors and the alarm of two mystery men from London, who know him as a spy. Is he dead? Chief Inspector Purbright investigates.
After solving the mystery of the missing Hopjoy, Chief Inspector Purbright turns his attention to a "lonely hearts" killer, whose next victim might be the fragile-seeming Miss Teatime. But she's deceptive.
Miss Teatime and her mysterious suitor both get an unexpected comeuppance, but will the former escape being murdered? As Chief Inspector Purbright appreciatively notices, she's tougher than she looks.
Several otherwise reputable sexagenarian Flaxborough men seem to be under the influence of a potent aphrodisiac in a series of assaults on local women.
