This is book 2 of the "Lord Peter Wimsey" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

Wow, I seem not to have read this since I started booklogging; which is quite a while now. I found an e-book, which prompted me to read it again.

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There's a murder on the Duke of Denver's estate, and the Duke himself is a suspect (and is not cooperating with his defense). That's Lord Peter's brother, so he's concerned. Also his sister is being strange as well (the person murdered was her fiance, maybe).

It complicates things more that, as a peer of the realm, Denver will be tried before the House of Lords, not in a court.

Inspector Parker, already a friend of Peter's but not (obviously) yet married to Mary, is investigating. He's trying to be delicate, but Peter at least has the good sense to feel that a competent friend investigating this mess is much better than some random policeman.

The complexity the Duke is hiding turns out to be his affair with the wife of a nearby farmer (an extraordinarily beautiful woman of no background, with an insanely jealous husband).

The title comes, it seems to me, from the large number of stories told by various people at various times, mostly believing them to be true.