The Deadly Joker

The Deadly Joker is a 1963 mystery novel by the Anglo-Irish writer Cecil Day-Lewis, under his pen name of Nicholas Blake. It was one of four stand-alone novels he wrote under the name alongside the Nigel Strangeways detective novels. It is unusual for the author for being written in a first person narrative from the perspective of the protagonist John Waterson.

Synopsis
A man and his younger wife settle in the English countryside, but find the village is teeming with tensions. Things come to a head when one of the inhabitants is killed during a flower show.