Lionel Townsend is Sergeant Beef's priggish biographer, most often found exasperated by Beefâs boorish manners. But now Townsendâs aunt has been poisoned. Townsend must turn to Beef for assistanceâhe has surprisingly found himself the prime suspect of the murder. When an unpopular publisher is found hanged in the Cotswolds, it seems utterly unrelated. Beef, in his inimitable way, flatfoots his way to a stunning conclusion.