'Always an accomplished crime writer,' said the Tablet of Patricia Moyes, reviewing her last book, Angel Death. The Times Literary Supplement found it 'very neatly put together', while Theatre Print urged that she be promoted to Crown Princess of Crime, ranking only just below Ngaio Marsh. The book's Caribbean background was enjoyed both by William Weaver in the Financial Times ('an excellent description of a tropical hurricane') and by Marghanita Laski in the Listener ('tempestuous natural trims').

It all began as a practical joke. Could a real life detective solve a fictional mystery with as much finesse as the heroes of best-selling crime novels? By compiling an intriguing crossword puzzle and sending it anonymously to Chief Superintendent Henry Tibbett of Scotland Yard, a group pf mystery writers decided to find out. Then the prank turned deadly.

Henry and Emmy Tibbett had been invited to the annual long weekend of the Guess Who? club. Its members, all pseudonymous, were crime writers published by the firm of Oppenshaw and Trilby and the weekend was held at Sir Robert Oppenshaw's home on the Isle of Wright. Then Henry was to reveal his solution to the puzzle.

But when a member of the house party died in an accident just when he was about to reveal the background to one of the clues, Henry found himself following a trail more than twenty years old as he and Emmy began to unravel the lives of the assembled writers. In a gripping story full of surprises, a secret kept for two decades is finally revealed.