Private investigator Harvard educated Hugh Quint has moved to an idyllic church steepled New Hampshire town where he "has some rugged stubborn New England types to contend with"- as The New York Times reviewer puts it. This "New England Cozy"(in the tradition of the English village cozy) plunks the reader down between feuding landowners of maple sugar orchards. When a neighbor is strangled, sweetness and light fast turns sticky and dangerous as Hugh Quint closes in on suspects.