sentences:  This novel is the third to take place against the setting of the imaginary New England town of Wrightsville (following "Calamity Town" and "The Murderer is a Fox") and, as is common in the Wrightsville novels, depends more on characterization, atmosphere and the observed minutiae of small-town American life than many other Queen novels; this novel less so, because of the necessity to make characters and events fit into the underlying format.