Prudence Bulstrode

Preparing a midwinter's feast for all hundred residents of the little Yorkshire village of Scrafton Busk is exactly the kind of challenge Prudence Bulstrode adores. A chance to show off her braised-neck of Moorland mutton, Wensleydale tart—and, of course, her famous figgy pudding—is just the thing to shake off the winter blues. But on the night of the feast, local vagabond Terry Chandler is found dead—his body entombed in the pristine snowman standing pride of place on the village green.

Prudence Bulstrode has fond memories of St Marianne's School for Girls, the beautiful Cornish school where she boarded as a girl. So when she's invited back to the school, to lead an Easter holidays course in the fundamentals of cookery, Prudence couldn't be more delighted. What's more, it's a chance to show her grand-daughter Suki the way school used to be in the good old days. But no sooner has Prudence arrived at St Marianne's, a gruesome discovery is made. The builders excavating the old hockey pitch to construct the new dormitories have unearthed human bones.