The worsted viper

the long version

Mrs Bradley is not unaccustomed to receiving fan mail, but the anonymous letter that she opens one morning at breakfast has not been sent by a well-wisher. The letter evokes memories for Mrs Bradley of a past criminal investigation, in which she had played a minor role in convicting a particularly unpleasant murderer and satanist. The letter, too, provokes a link to a sudden spate of gruesome and ritualistic murders occurring in the normally tranquil surroundings of the Norfolk Broads and, not for the first time, Mrs Bradley finds herself drawn into a race to track down a killer.