Everyone fell under the spell of Jimmy Sutane, the charming and talented song-and-dance man. Everyone, that is, except the spiteful practical joker who put a pin in his stick of grease-paint and pasted ‘Last Week’ over the ‘House Full’ notices. Nothing too deadly. But as soon as Albert Campion is called in to investigate, people begin to die, and there’s no shortage of suspects when the first victim’s death is so convenient for so many.

Egos, reputations and salaries are at stake…  and when Campion first arrives at Jimmy Sutane’s house he is completely entranced by Sutane’s wife. She isn’t the typical wife you might expect a star to have and she and Campion seem to connect quite deeply. Under pressure to uncover the culprit, and plagued by his growing feelings for Sutane’s wife, Campion finds himself uncomfortably embroiled in an investigation which tests his ingenuity and integrity to the limit.

“But there are roughly two sorts of informed people, aren’t there? People who start off right by observing the pitfalls and mistakes and going round them, and the people who fall into them and get out and know they’re there because of that. They both come to the same conclusions but they don’t have quite the same point of view.” 
― Margery Allingham, Dancers in Mourning