`The characters are quite extraordinarily living...A most original and grimly farcical situation` - Dorothy L. SayersRobert Arthur Kewdingham is an eccentric failure of a man. In middle age he retreats into a private world, hunting for Roman artefacts and devoting himself to bizarre mystical beliefs. Robert`s wife, Bertha, feels that there are few things more dreadful than a husband who will persist in making a fool of himself in public. Their marriage consists of horrible quarrels, futile arguments, incessant bickering. Scarcely any friends will visit the Kewdinghams in their peaceful hometown Shufflecester. Everything is wrong - and with the entrance of John Harrigall, a bohemian bachelor from London who catches Bertha`s eye, they take a turn for the worse. Soon deep passions and resentments shatter the calm facade of the Kewdinghams` lives. This richly characterised and elegantly written crime novel from 1933 is a true forgotten classic.