
No observer ignorant of the situation would have guessed that death lurked nearby & that only a little distance from the glitter of silver & glass & the hum of voices two victims lay silent on a studio floor' On a fine autumn weekend Lord Aveling hosts a hunting party at his country house Bragley Court Among the guests are an actress a journalist an artist & a mystery novelist The unlucky thirteenth is John Foss injured at the local train station & brought to the house to recuperate
- but John is nursing a secret of his own Soon events take a sinister turn when a painting is mutilated a dog stabbed & a man strangled Death strikes more than one of the house guests & the police are called Detective Inspector Kendall's skills are tested to the utmost as he tries to uncover the hidden past of everyone at Bragley Court This country-house mystery is a forgotten classic of 1930s crime fiction by one of the most undeservedly neglected of golden age detective novelists