Taking a break from practicing for a holiday dance performance to accompany her friend Davy to the beach, Maryellen finds a barnacle-encrusted ring buried in the sand that looks like lost treasure and is desperately sought by a group of strangers.

"The August bank holiday is approaching and after two extremely high-profile murder cases, Constable Twitten is eagerly anticipating a quiet spell at work. But then they find the bodies--and the milk bottles. Three seemingly unconnected victims--a hard-working AA patrolman, a would-be Beauty Queen, a catty BBC radio personality--have all been killed with the same, highly unusual murder weapon. Constable Twitten, Sergeant Brunswick and Inspector Steine...

Constable Twitten investigates the death of a famed theater critic who was murdered before he could deliver information about an unsolved crime. 1957. Famed theater critic A. S. Crystal has come to the British seaside resort of Brighton with something other than the local production of A Shilling in the Meter on his mind. He intends to tell Constable Twitten the secret he knows about the still-unsolved Aldersgate Stick-Up case of 1945. Just before...