When the proprietor of Leighton's Mercantile is found dead the morning his
annual Christmas display is to be unveiled, it's clear that a killer had revenge in
mind. But who would want to harm the local shopkeeper? Perhaps someone who
still remembers the mysterious scandal that destroyed his career as a professor
and archaeologist ...
The killer strikes again a few days later, manipulating the figures in the holiday
display to foretell the crime. Myrtle Hardcastle, twelve-year-old Young Lady of
Quality and Victorian amateur detective, finds herself racing to uncover the long
buried facts of a baffling cold case-and the motivations of a modern murderer.