Frank Carlson Library

In London, the managing director of a stately publishing house is found dead, a stuffed snake in his mouth. The suspects are many: a rejected author, a discarded mistress, a resentful employee, to mention just a few. Commander Adam Dalgliesh sifts through their lives and the company's finances in order to find the killer.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate a murder at a private nursing home for rich patients being treated by the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell.

"When headstrong and beautiful housemaid Sally Jupp is found strangled in her bed behind a bolted door, Detective Chief-Inspector Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must unmask her killer from a houseful of suspects--most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill. Each new clue he uncovers leads to a dramatic twist in this ingeniously plotted mystery"--Cover, p. 4.