Maude Silver and her niece have gone for a short vacation on the Channel coast. Instead of an enjoyable time, Miss Silver finds herself involved in a murder.

Alan Field had just returned from South Africa after a three year absence. A handsome, smooth talking man, who could charm anyone and had for years. The problem with him was his ability to charm money from wealthy ladies and never pay it back. Many people knew of this flaw, and when his dead body was found there was quite a list of suspects.

The case is assigned to Inspector Frank Abbott of Scotland Yard, as he is already investigating the murder of Field’s “business partner.” When Abbott learns of Miss Silver’s vacationing in the same area as the murder, he knows he will have excellent help in getting information towards solving Fields’s murder, if not the other victim’s murder.

Miss Silver’s capacity for observing people and making astute analysis of them has come in handy in other cases. This one will be the same.

The various people connected to the case may have secrets, but Miss Silver will unravel them as neatly as she does her ball of yarn as she knits. ( )

There was no shortage of suspects when Alan Field was murdered: his long-suffering stepmother, the fiancee he left at the altar, and the young wife whose indiscretions had left her open to blackmail were only a few. Pippa Maybury, the blackmail victim, begs Miss Silver to discover the real murderer before Pippa herself is arrested. Miss Silver soon is living at Cliff Edge with the Hardwick family and their guests, and is investigating in her own discreet & very effective way. An old-fashioned and well-written English mystery. ( )