' Mr Wills Crofts is deservedly a first favourite with all who want a real puzzle'
- Times Literary Supplement ' He always manages to give us something that really keeps us guessing'
- Daily Mirror George Surridge director of the Birmington Zoo is a man with many worries his marriage is collapsing; his finances are insecure; & an outbreak of disease threatens the animals in his care As Surridge's debts mount & the pressure on him increases he begins to dream of miracle solutions But is he cunning enough to turn his dreams into reality
- & could he commit the most devious murder in pursuit of his goals? This ingenious crime novel with its unusual 'inverted' structure & sympathetic portrait of a man on the edge is one of the greatest works by this highly respected author The elaborate means of murder devised by Crofts's characters is perhaps unsurpassed in English crime fiction for its ostentatious intricacy