This book is dedicated to the many readers in this and other countries who write to me asking: 'What has happened to Tommy and Tuppence? What are they doing now?' My best wishes to you all, and I hope you will enjoy meeting Tommy and Tuppence again, years older, but with spirit unquenched！

When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they think nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada is a very difficult old lady.

But when Mrs Lockett mentions a poisoned mushroom stew and Mrs Lancaster talks about 'something behind the fireplace',Tommy and Tuppence find themselves caught up in an unexpected adventure involving a strange inheritance, a mysterious house,black magic, a missing tombstone - and almost death for the redoubtable Tuppence...

Book 1

Sunny Ridge

1 A untAda 13

2 Was it your Poor Child? 25

3 A Funeral 45

4 Picture of a House 51

5 Disappearance of an Old Lady 71

6 Tuppence on the Trail 85

Book 2

The House on the Canal

7 The Friendly Witch 97

8 Sutton Chancellor 121

9 A Morning in Market Basing 163

Book 3

Missing - A Wife

10 A Conference - and After 181

11 Bond Street and Dr Murray 197

12 Tommy Meets an Old Friend 219

13 Albert on Clues 251

Book 4

Here is a Church and here is the Steeple

Open the Doors and there are the People

14 Exercise in Thinking 277

15 Evening at the Vicarage 293

16 The Morning After 317

17 Mrs Lancaster 329