When Caroline leaves hospital her sister Fenella insists that she must convalesce in her house in the West Country. But, in the event, Caroline's visit is far from restful.

Fenella's husband is moody, excitable, reckless and inexplicably affluent, and soon the brooding atmosphere explodes into violence and murder . . .

Her great virtue, exceeding even her meatily logical plotting and gift of hitting often on really intriguing situations, is her portrayal of people The Times