The Musical Comedy Crime

A murder mystery featuring Anthony Gilbert''s Liberal politician-detective Scott Egerton. It began with the theatre - and ended with drugs blackmail and a decades old crime...Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection ClubMajor John Hillier a well-known clubman is found dead in his flat in Upper Paulton Terrace early one morning in rather peculiar circumstances. The discovery is made by a servant upon whom a certain amount of suspicion falls. Inspector Field traces the dead mans movements on the previous night and learns that after breaking up a dinner-party in a somewhat unconventional fashion he travelled some distance to a remote suburban theatre to see a leading lady whom he cannot even identify by sight. Following up certain clues and deductions of his own Field discovers the reason for this strange course of action and tracing back the dead mans history over a number of years finds himself entangled in a nest of underworld intrigue in England and on the Continent. Drugs blackmail and a crime many years old all play their part in an affair that starting without sensation attains universal attention. The congruent parts of the mystery are finally put together by Field and Scott Egerton who entering the case late in its development is able to supply the final link.''No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant''~Sunday Express