Returning to Elmhurst many years after his involuntary departure, to attend a civic reception in his honour, Sir Rufus Seward had ignored the maxim that 'going back' is not always wise. Summoned after Seward's body is found, a wood chisel protruding from its back, Dl Joe Rafferty receives a panicky call from his younger brother, Mickey, who fears he is in the frame for Seward's murder. Strangely, given his loathing of the dead man, Mickey had received an invitation to the reception. Keen to confront the bully who made his youth a misery, Mickey found his tormentor's body, and fled the scene...Rafferty, aware that his brother hated Seward, and that Mickey, a carpenter by trade, has three pointers to guilt - the means, the motive and the opportunity - finds himself torn between protecting his family and finding the real killer.