The Body in the Dumb River, also published under the title Murder Masquerade, was first published in 1961 - twenty years after the publication of the first novel by Detective Tom Littlejohn (who has risen to superintendent) visits a marshy county in East Anglia, where he is asked to take part in a murder investigation. It soon becomes clear that the murdered Jim Lane led a double life. His real name was James Teasdale, and he had a family in Yorkshire who were unaware of his work at the fair and Martha Gomm, the woman with whom he lived. Littlejohn's investigation leads him to Yorkshire and he sets about unraveling the mystery of Tisdale's fate with his usual mixture of insight and compassion.