Alone in the Vicarage on a wild evening with storm clouds gathering, Emily Varney senses impending trouble. But greater trouble than she ever imagined comes when a body is found in the churchyard and flood waters engulf Marshton. As the bedraggled villagers seek refuge in the church and vicarage tension quickly increases. Many people, it appears, had reason to wish the victim dead, and gossip is not slow to point accusing fingers. But it is when the Vicar himself is suspected that Emily takes a hand. Unknown to the parishioners she writes best-selling detective stories and is determined to solve this real-life murder. The murderer strikes again as Emily sets to work, and many dark secrets are revealed before the flood waters recede and peace returns to Marshton. Set on the north Norfolk coast at the time of the devastating floods of 1953, this is Mabel Esther Allan's only published book for adults.