Alice Beeton never meant to wind up single and childless on the wrong side of fifty. She had hoped to have her own spic-and-span household by now. In reality, she lives in an immaculate but dingy basement flat with Agatha, her fiercely intelligent, if rather over-territorial, corgi-Jack Russell cross. Now Alice runs the Good Household Management Agency, providing discreet domestic staff to extravagant townhouses and sprawling country piles. So when Camille Messant calls in urgent need of a new housekeeper, Miss Beeton sends out new hire Enya. But in the early hours of New Year’s Day, Alice is rudely awakened with the news that Enya has been found dead. As the intriguing, if somewhat scruffy, Detective Rigby struggles to drum up an adequate investigation and the wealthy family and their party guests close rank, Miss Beeton takes it upon herself to solve the crime…