Luckily for Simon, a dandy new drug has made bloodsucking and sun damage passe. Which makes it possible for him to work himself into the daily life of Snupperton Mumsley. While attending a meeting of SMADS (the Snupperton Mumsley Amateur Dramatic Society), a fierce contretemps brews between Lady Prunella Blitherington, the pompous matriarch of the village's "first family, " and Abigail Winterton, the mean-spirited postmistress, over which play to perform. A day later, Abigail is found strangled; her play -- detailing the sordid lives of the residents of a small English village -- nowhere to be found.

With his preternatural senses tuned for trouble, Simon makes his rounds among the village regulars, including Lady Blitherington's snooty son Giles; Trevor Chase, a charming bookseller with a dark secret; and Colonel Athelstan Clitheroe, who could easily have been plucked from the pages of an Agatha Christie novel. No one is above suspicion as Simon gathers enough dishy gossip to bring a blush to his unearthly pallor, while looking for the play and the person who brought the curtain down in on its author's life.