Halloween masks hide secrets, both petty and passionate. Behind one mask also hides a murderer.

Crickle Hythe, Oxfordshire, 1936. Ruby Dove is depressed.

So Fina and Pixley lift her spirits with a lighthearted party, though it soon has deadly results. At a Halloween gala in Ruby’s village of Crickle Hythe, long-standing grudges and insignificant slights rise to the surface like the bobbing apples awaiting the snap of children’s teeth.

After the death of a guest, Ruby and Fina are eyed suspiciously by the local police—though there’s no shortage of suspects. Crickle Hythe’s placid surface hides a hotbed of intrigue from the local witch to the sharp-tongued owner of Chidden Park.

Our intrepid detectives are running from the police and running out of time. Will they unmask the murderer before the net tightens around them?Our trio hops aboard Pixley’s new narrowboat to plumb the depths of inequity in the gently flowing river of the English countryside.

But they know too well that still waters run deep. If you love golden age detection with a dash of history, join our fashionable Oxford sleuth-spies in a delightful mystery romp through the 1930s.

Ruby and Fina wager that you'll never guess who did it. .