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Private Notes
On Christmas Eve, Wexford and Burden are called to the Kingsmarkham Hospital. A baby has been stolen from its pram and another baby left behind in its place, and it seems that the mother of the stolen child may also be in danger.
One evening, someone messes up a love-nest on a side street in a small country town. The carpet is soaked with human blood, but there is no body to be found. Meanwhile, a beautiful, promiscuous woman goes missing - as does the bundle of cash she was carrying. But Wexford and Burden have different theories about the disappearance of the eccentric Anita Margolis.
Wexford finds he is dealing with a very nasty case when nature-loving Elizabeth Nightingale is murdered on one of her nightly walks through the woods around Myfleet Manor.
The Kingsmarkham police investigate the disappearance of John Lawrence, a five-year-old boy.Seven-and-a-half months after he goes missing, mad, taunting letters begin to arrive, and another child, Stella Rivers, vanishes.
Wexford investigates when the dead body of a middle aged woman is found in a hedge - but there are no clues to the woman's identity, let alone any clues that might lead to her killer.
The Kingsmarkham rock festival is going smoothly until the disfigured body of of a local girl, thought to be living in London, is found in a nearby quarry. Wexford investigates the links between a charismatic singer and a young woman gone to the bad.
Wexford joins forces with the bridegroom when his best man is killed at the stag party. And Charlie Hatton's death is only the first in a string of murders which seem to be about cheating husbands, loose women and gangsters.
A local clergyman is anxious to re-open a thirty-year-old murder case, which resulted in Harry Painter being hanged for the axe-murder of an elderly woman. Wexford himself, as a young detective sergeant, helped to convict Painter, and he has to face the possibility that the wrong man was hanged.
Wexford is staying in London with his nephew Howard, a police superintendent, convalescing from over-work and under doctor's orders to drink only water. He is supposed to be resting, but he is bored, and his nephew is dealing with a fascinating murder case. The body of a young woman, Loveday Morgan, was found in Kenbourne Vale Cemetery, strangled with a silk scarf, and the only things in her handbag were a photograph and two telephone numbers. It appears that she had no money and was living under a false name. Wexford, keen to get out and about, is drawn to the case. His unofficial investigation uncovers a story of adoption and parental love.
Margaret Parsons, a fairly ordinary housewife who, with her water board official husband Ron, has recently moved to Kingsmarkham, is found murdered in a field. Mrs. Parsons led an extremely uneventful life, being a lay preacher, but Inspector Wexford is intrigued when he is looking through her belongings and fine a number of expensive antique books all inscribed 'From Doon to Minna'.Who is Doon?
Although Mr. Parsons is under the impression that he and his wife knew nobody in Kingsmarkham it turns out that Margaret had two school acquaintances in the town, Helen Missal and Fabia Quadrant, who are now both married to very wealthy men. Wexford assumes that one of these men is Doon, and was having an affair with the victim, but appearances can be deceptive
Inspector Wexford is confronted with a murder in a vegetarian family and wonders how many kinds of mushrooms there are.
