On the eve of Elaine Southey's 21st birthday, the residents and neighbours of the Southeys' historic north London home prepare for the party under a pall of anxiety, while a grim surprise awaits in the basement flat. There lies the insidious charmer Ivan Sweet – whose malign influence held so many in its grasp – dead in suspicious circumstances. While reactions of horror – and relief – spread through the party, the truth that a murderer remains at large seeps in slow and cold.

To bring the ruthless killer to justice, the young Oxford man Superintendent Paul Grainger must untangle the twisted web of Sweet's wrongdoing – and the dark secrets threatening to ruin each suspect's good name. First published in 1960, Sinclair's stylish debut is a classic murder mystery shot through with a chilling vein of the macabre.