The Smith Assignment

When Joan and Michael go away on a fortnight's holiday, Janet and Edward are left to run the bed and breakfast in their absence. They had been warned that the top-secret government agency which had formerly employed them might be sending guests to stay during the fortnight, but Janet wasn't expecting the guests who actually arrived.

Mr. Jones, Edward's former handler, arrived first. He was followed by two men who seemed perfectly ordinary in every way. On their first night in Doveby Dale, the trio headed to the local pub. The next morning, as their guests enjoy breakfast, the local radio shares the news that one of their fellow pubgoers was murdered. And it very quickly becomes evident that the three guests at Doveby House are high on the list of suspects.

Without knowing why they're in Doveby Dale, it's difficult for Janet and Edward to work out whether any of their guests had a motive for the murder or not, but it doesn't take them long to find motives for the dead man's closest friends. The man's mysterious past also suggests possible motives, but those seem to point back at the Doveby House guests. Janet and Edward are determined to find the killer and help Mr. Jones and the agency as much as they can in this nineteenth book in the series.