Sheila's friend, larger-than-life Eva Jackson, has returned to the village of Taviscombe after losing her husband, Alan. A foreign correspondent, Alan reported on dangerous stories around the world from Libya to Afghanistan, but the cause of his death was more mundane: kidney failure in a London hospital. Still, he led a storied life, and much of his past lies in his writings, papers, and books now boxed away in Eva's garage. After Eva decides to compile a book of Alan's unpublished works, a fire mysteriously breaks out in the garage. Then Eva meets a suspicious end, leading Sheila to wonder if there's a killer at large in their charming Devon countryside.