`My friend Ellingham has persuaded me to reveal to the public the astounding features of the Reisby case. As a study in criminal aberration it is, he tells me, of particular interest, while in singularity of horror and in perversity of ingenious method it is probably unique.` 1913. John Farringdale, with his cousin Eric Foster, visits the famous archaeologist Tolgen Reisby. At Scarweather - Reisby`s lonely house on the windswept northern coast of England - Eric is quickly attracted to Reisby`s much younger wife, and matters soon take a dangerous turn. Fifteen years later, the final scene of the drama is enacted. This unorthodox novel from 1934 is by a gifted crime writer who, wrote Dorothy L. Sayers, `handles his characters like a ”real” novelist and the English language like a ”real” writer - merits which are still, unhappily, rarer than they should be in the ranks of the murder specialists.`