The Knocker on Death's Door

No case is too strange or too baffling for the policeman George Felse and his son, Dominic. Over 13 instalments and two decades, the Felse Investigations will take them from their home on the Welsh Borders to the southernmost tip of India.

No sooner than a late-Gothic, oak door is returned to its rightful place at Mottisham village church, there is a body to go with it: a news photographer is found dead at the threshold, his hand extended to its great cast iron knocker. Surely it is not a coincidence when a second victim is discovered in eerily similar circumstances?

Legend holds that sinners who seize the knocker have their hands burned by the cold iron, but Gerry Bracewell didn't die of burns, and neither did the second victim. Had they knocked on death's door, or is a more down-to-earth killer at large? Detective Chief Inspector George Felse had watched the ceremony to re-dedicate the door. Little did he know that soon he would be called back to Mottisham to investigate murder. . .

'Highly recommended to those who still like a proper five-course whodunnit with all the trimmings' Sunday Times
'A cult figure of crime fiction' Financial Times
'Charm is not usual in murder mysteries, but Ellis Peters' stories are full of it' Mail on Sunday