Littlejohn takes on an apparent serial killer who is stalking the residents of a once-sleepy village.

“The place is dead now at night. It’s like it was in wartime. As soon as night falls, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

When Samuel Bracknell is found dead in his home with a knife in his back, the third murder of its kind in as many weeks, the population of Carleton Unthank is left shivering in their beds.

Superintendent Littlejohn arrives to investigate and is sickened to hear that all three crimes were committed with the same knife. Why then was the knife was left in Bracknell’s body? Was the murderer disturbed – or is it a sign of something more sinister?

When a fourth body turns up, this one an apparent suicide, Littlejohn is baffled. What is going on in Carleton Unthank? The once sleepy village is gaining a ghoulish reputation as The Town of Fearful Nights and the threat of another murder looms each time the sun sets. Littlejohn faces sleep deprived residents, no clues, and a race against the clock to prevent the body count rising any further.

Death in the Fearful Night was originally published in 1960.