It's Christmas Eve in the small town of Sherebury. Dorothy Martin, a recently widowed American, is having her first Christmas in England.

But as she leaves the cathedral's midnight mass, she literally stumbles over a dead body — and it’s one of the priests, Canon Billings.

He wasn’t very popular and the list of suspects includes most of the town. But Dorothy doesn’t give up easily when it comes to finding out the truth.

Of course, she does get to meet Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, and a good mystery on a chilly English night does have some appeal.

Winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.