Scandal hits the staid publishing house of Barnabas when one of the directors is found dead in a locked cellar which the company uses as the strong-room. Suspicion immediately falls on his wife’s lover, the junior partner in the firm. But how does an unpublished Restoration comedy come to feature in the tragedy? And what of the odd disappearance of another director twenty years before?  What follows is an intriguing story with many strands linking the past to the present.  The tension grows and grows:  the trial of Mike Wedgwood for murder is nail-bitingly tense, and Campion needs all his resources, and charm in befriending the characters to uncover the truth.

“Ms Allingham has a strong, controlled sense of humour and is never dull” Times Literary Supplement

“One of her best… vivid and witty” New York Times