Not far away, at Merlin’s Castle lived Professor Havers, of Carford University, a man with an unsavoury reputation and a taste for witchcraft; and soon, at Merlin’s Castle, long before his appointed time, Professor Havers died—violently…

And at Carford, not long before, an unfortunate undergraduate, a pupil of Professor Havers, had died—violently also, since he appeared to have cut his own throat…

It was fortunate indeed that three other undergraduates, involved innocently enough in these bloody affairs, had as a friend a nephew of Mrs. Lestrange Bradley. Fortunate for them, for they certainly needed help; fortunately for Mrs. Bradley, since the case, with its flavour of witchcraft and the Black Mass, was one after her own heart; and most fortunate of all for the countless admirers of ‘the best woman detective in fiction’ who will find in Merlin’s Furlong all the ingredients of a vintage Gladys Mitchell crime story.