Would-be mystery writer Cecil Appleby has plotted the perfect retirement ? enjoying his collection of Golden Age whodunits, his plants and his adored cat. The plot twists as soon as it starts when his historic home in a cozy village yields a fresh corpse that has misplaced its head.

Instead of quiet and privacy he has media vans on his doorstep. Squabbling law enforcement agencies look in all the wrong places. They think Cecil's trips for the Agriculture Department were cover for covert assignments. They go after the hapless real estate agent who sold Cecil his corpse-yielding house sight unseen. They even target his savvy young housekeeper, Winks, because she has a juvenile record. Indignant at the injustice and bureaucracy, Cecil sets out to find the real killer.

Suspects abound, including the victim's long-suffering wife, who lied about her whereabouts the afternoon of his murder; his alienated teenage children; and a brother-in-law with a short fuse. Add residents of the small town who were harmed financially or otherwise by the dead man's not-so-funny practical jokes, and Cecil and Winks ? who proves as talented as an assistant as in the kitchen ? have plenty to work with. But as they ask questions, the killer strikes again. Then an arson attempt endangers Cecil's beloved cat, Miss Silver, turning Cecil's war of wits with the murderer personal.

In the course of his investigation, the determined amateur detective has developed unexpected and unlikely friendships, from a razor-sharp local news blogger fired by her own son, to residents of a halfway house, to a scrappy retired professor who appoints himself Cecil's occasionally annoying sidekick. Now Cecil's skill at unearthing clues and upending alibis sets him on a collision course with the sword-wielding killer. Will Cecil ? with a little help from his new friends ? be able to keep his own head firmly attached?

(334 pages)