Armstrong sets up the reader by opening with some apparently disconnected stories. It is a safe assumption that connections will be found by the end of the tale. This is really not a case of three story threads. One is an incident that later turns out to be of great interest... then there is the main story line. We meet Tom Oliver, who is a writer perhaps a little past his apogee. He has been invited to a somewhat bohemian English country house where he is to be writer in residence for a week, providing guidance to a group of hopefuls. Things get complicated rather quickly, and the services of the police are required.
The police involved are Kavanagh and Salt, whose partnership extends beyond the office. They feature in several of Armstrong's novels, so there is a slowly developing back story here as well.
The book is a quick read. It has some interesting plot twists, though it is hard to escape the feeling of being manipulated by an author who devised a linear plot then deliberately told it in a non-linear fashion. Tom Oliver has his points of interest, but is a somewhat sad character, and the pair of Kavanagh and Salt would probably require me to read another "Kavanagh and Salt mystery" to start to become more than roughly sketched characters.
There is little to perturb the sensitive reader, though various sexual encounters are referred to. All in all a mild detective mystery read.
Andrew Lack
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