Meg Langslow would rather be overseeing the drastic work on the house she and her fiancé Michael have bought, but she has been shanghaied by her relatives into joining a croquet tournament. While looking for a lost ball in a briarpatch, she finds a woman’s body. Who is she? And who gave her those lethal blows on the head that could have been made by a sledgehammer? Or a croquet mallet. There are several suspects, most of them a bit bizarre.

If anyone can make a delightful romp out of a murder case, it’s Donna Andrews, as the myriad admirers (and bookbuyers) have proven.