Plot Summary:Abandoned by the army, who took it over in World War II, the village of Little Auburn is to be reoccupied, with three groups of people submitting ideas for its resurrection. When Finn Thornbury, who with girlfriend Corinna Craven had opted for an eco-friendly village, is killed, Barnaby and new sergeant Winter discover he had a secret wife nobody knew about. Of the rival bidders, elderly Sylvia Lennard, seeking to restore the village to former glories, hated the deceased, but property developers Blake and Lucy Keswick claim to have had no argument with him. Corinna's father Roderick, who was to judge the worth of each party, is the next victim, and oddly, Finn's mother Andrea is his main beneficiary. With the discovery of an illegal snake farm and more secrets unfolding, Barnaby must decide whether greed or passion accounted for the murders in the village that rose from the dead.
The ghost village of Little Auburn has been abandoned since the war. When a young man is found murdered during its grand reopening, DCI Barnaby and DS Winter must unravel a sinister web of lies from both past and present in order to catch the killer.