Talking to the Dead

Postman Sam Nelms' morning delivery takes a strange turn when he discovers the occupants of neighboring cottages, the Goodfellows and Thomases have vanished, leaving half-eaten breakfasts on the table. Some years earlier the Thomases' son died in nearby Monks Barton woods,believed to be haunted, and flamboyant psychic Cyrus LeVanu arrives to perform an exorcism in the woods. The corpse of a known antiques burglar and those of the Thomases are discovered whilst Stanley Goodfellow is found,raving and apparently mad. An antiques theft ring is exposed,headed by the next victim, who manufactured ghostly noises in the woods to scare people away from his misdeeds. Barnaby knows who the killer is by now but the location of Stanley's wife,alive, by Cyrus's psychic powers shows that talking to the dead may be possible. —don @ minifie-1