A celebrated writer is drawn into a deliberately old-fashioned British murder puzzle in which the clues appear familiar but refuse to fit neatly together. A crime that should yield to logic instead produces competing explanations, suspicious behaviour and comic frustration. Kingsley Amis plays with the conventions of classic detective fiction, using sharp dialogue and satire while the investigation tests each apparent solution. The result is a compact mystery that is as interested in the habits and vanities of its characters as it is in identifying the person responsible for the crime.