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Summary: Seaside country house party in the 1950s
Review: Here we have one of the rare instances in which Maud Silver's favourite niece, Ethel Burkett, actually appears on stage; they're staying together at the seaside since Ethel has just recovered from a serious illness. Their hostess, Darsie Anning, has had a lot of trouble in her life, all of it stemming from getting involved with the wrong man: Alan Field. Not that he's the *right* man for anybody...In keeping with the title, this book has a prologue set a couple of years before the main action begins in the first chapter. James Hardwick fell in love with Carmona Leigh at first sight on her 21st birthday, but through bad luck he couldn't wangle an introduction through her guardian that night before being posted to the Middle East. Her guardian, Colonel Trevor, disapproved of Alan Field, Carmona's would-be fiancee - good looks and the ability to charm women didn't cut any ice compared with Field having been kicked out of the Army. Nevertheless, when Hardwick returned, he learned that Carmona was to marry Field within a week - but she looked desperately unhappy. But when the main action of the novel picks up at that point, we learn that Field literally jilted Carmona at the altar and left for South America (London was getting too hot to hold him anyway), so Carmona had married Hardwick on the rebound after a 3-month courtship. If you're thinking "AHA! Field was really murdered and somebody faked the trip!", well, join the club of People Conned by Wentworth. :) In the present, Carmona's at her husband's place at Cliff Edge by the sea with Esther Field (Alan's soft-hearted stepmother who isn't soft-headed about him), Esther's old school friend, the formidable Lady Castleton; her own old friend, the party-girl Pippa Maybury; and the Trevors. James Hardwick is about to return from a business trip, so they're pretty well crammed to the rafters when an uninvited guest appears: Alan Field, who first has the nerve to try to stay with the Hardwicks, then in even worse taste goes to Darsie Anning, who has better reason than Carmona to resent him. Naturally, he's come to wangle some capital out of Esther for some get-rich-quick scheme, but he's done that once too often - and when she refuses, he tries his hand at blackmailing just about every member of the party. (Various confrontations with potential victims happen on-stage; Wentworth plays fair.) When he's found dead, the only surprises are that the murder weapon has disappeared, and that somebody didn't do it years ago. All in all, good riddance; catching the killer is desirable mainly so that at least the innocent (well, innocent of this mess) don't suffer. Pippa Maybury, who was being blackmailed and panicked when she found the body, wants Maud Silver to clear it up quickly and quietly, rather than having a police investigation expose her particular guilty secret. One unusual feature of this case (given that it's a Silver investigation) are that the typical tangle of relationships between lovers and/or spouses are - or seem to be - much less emotionally charged on this occasion. But that might just be Wentworth's cunning, mightn't it? :)
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