Upper Square is the last stronghold of snobbery in Abbot’s Caldicott, a dying little metropolis in East Anglia, and the remnants of queer old families reside there.
Doctor Beharrell, a prominent physician, is found murdered in a secret room in his home at Bank House, in the square, and Superintendent Littlejohn, warned before it has been discovered that the crime has been committed, goes to investigate.
Before he leaves Caldicott with the case solved, a lot of strange past history comes to light and the repressions and inbreeding of the upper ten of Caldicott produce some queer twists of hatred and madness. Littlejohn, whom David Holloway calls ‘ the most courteous of all fictional detectives,’ finds all his good manners are needed in dealing with this strange affair among a crowd of characters who live in an atmosphere of days that are gone.
