Nobody loves an honest man, or that was what police sergeant Hamish Macbeth tried to tell newcomer Paul English. Paul had moved to a house in Cnothan, a sour village on Hamish's beat. He attended church in Lochdubh. He told the minister, Mr. Wellington, that his sermons were boring. He told tweedy Mrs. Wellington that she was too fat and in these days of increasing obesity it was her duty to show a good example. Angela Brody was told her detective stories were pap for the masses and it was time she wrote literature instead. He accused Hamish of having dyed his fiery red hair. He told Jessie Currie, who repeated all the last words of her twin sister, that she needed psychiatric help. 'I speak as I find', he bragged. Voices saying, 'I could kill that man', could be heard from Lochdubh to Cnothan. And someone did. Now Hamish is faced with a bewildering array of suspects.