[1] Marsh says that she started writing about Alleyn in 1931 when the Murder Game was popular at English weekend parties.

After reading a detective story by Christie or Sayers on a wet Saturday afternoon in London she wondered whether she could write something in the genre and bought six exercise books and a pencil at a local stationer's.

[2] Journalist Nigel Bathgate somewhat begrudgingly attends a weekend house party at the estate of Sir Hubert Handesley.

Amongst the other guests are Nigel's womanizing cousin Charles Rankin, Sir Hubert's niece Angela North, Arthur and Marjorie Wilde, Rosamund Grant and Dr. Tokareff, a Russian doctor.

Vassily, the Russian butler, begins the murder game by covertly selecting the killer.

The killer has roughly a day and a half to tap another guest on the shoulder to "kill" them then ring a gong to signal that the murder has occurred.

In the evening, the gong sounds out but when the guests investigate, they find Charles Rankin genuinely murdered with his Russian dagger in his back.

Arthur Wilde admits to being the killer in the murder game but Nigel, who strikes up a friendship with Alleyn, provides him with an alibi.

The novel ends with Nigel, now a rich man, free to pursue the heart of Angela North.

The hue-and-cry is good enough, and the author has spared no effort to keep his trailers off the scent as long as possible.This novel was adapted for the television series The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, with the most notable change being that the Angela North character was replaced by Agatha Troy, who appears in later novels as Alleyn's wife.