Suppression and Suspicion

<p>Edmund Harkins has gone missing. Few would confess to liking the man - a wife-beater and distinctly unsavoury character - so when some hungry pigs disinter his corpse in a shallow grave there is hardly an outpouring of grief. However this intensifies the problem Sir Hugh faces: as bailiff of Bampton it is his duty to discover who has slain Edmund. But if he does he will earn the enmity of villagers who are pleased the scoundrel is dead and who knows what repercussions might follow?</p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>To further complicate Hugh's life the Bishop of Exeter has sent a new vicar to Bampton his nephew who behaves in an obnoxious manner to Lady Katherine's maid and seems obsessed with discovering any heretical views Hugh might hold. The vicar also it transpires is contributing to the unhealthy atmosphere of suppression and suspicion that has come to pervade the village . . .</span></p>