The deer leap

First it was Una Quick’s dog; next the Potter sisters’ beloved cat; and then the surly Gerard Jenks’s equally surly guard dog. If it hadn’t seemed impossible, one would have thought that the animal population of Ashdown Dean was methodically killing itself off. Or being killed. But surely even the latter eventuality is hardly a case for Superintendent Jury of Scotland Yard? Still less for the formidable combined deductive powers of Jury and the former Lord Ardry, his affable aristocratic helper. Still, how can they resist a summons from their friend Polly Praed, amethyst-eyed writer of detective novels, who insists on the presence of the duo after she opens the door to a telephone kiosk and is unpleasantly surprised? The Hampshire village proves to have a lot more murky secrets beneath its sleepy surface, as do its inhabitants - particularly the village matriarch, Regina de la Notre, and her young ward, a passionate animal rights crusader who runs a sanctuary for sick and wounded creatures.