The Close at Melchester Cathedral was normally a quiet place where canons, vicars, vergers, and others involved in running the great cathedral lived in tranquility, until somebody among them started waging a hate campaign against the white-haired senior verger. This troubled the Dean greatly, so much so that he invited his favorite nephew down from Scotland Yard for an unofficial visit. And what young Sergeant Pollock found was so distrubing that he was obliged to call in his superior officer, Chief Inspector Hazlerigg, a thick, square man whose deceptively sanguine exterior conceals a first-rate intellect. But even his presence is not enough to stop the murderer in their midst from carrying out a very deadly plan. Published in 1947, ten years after it takes place, Close Quarters is the first novel from this acclaimed writer, who went on to win grandmaster and lfietime achievement awards from mystery associations in England, the U.S., France, and Sweden.