[1] Published in 1951, it combines traits of classical Golden Age murder mystery – a group of guests in a snowed in country house – with the realities of post-war Britain.

The book was republished in 2017, with both Mark Lawson in The Guardian and Marcel Berlins in The Sunday Times listing it as one of the best crime novels of the year.

Reflecting changes in the convoluted marriage of democratic and royal laws and customs of Great Britain, the novel has an underlying theme of social transformation.

Robert cannot contain his political leanings even when talking to Lady Camilla, finding fault with Doctor Bottwink, "Has your new Jew friend asked you to go back to Palestine with him yet?"

Doctor Bottwink, a well-educated Jew from Eastern Europe, who managed to escape Nazi concentration camp, is sympathetic to Communist ideas but despises Soviet Stalinism.

He considers post-war Great Britain a world where "the owners of historic mansions are pitiable anachronisms, helplessly awaiting the hour when the advancing tread of social justice would force them from the privileged positions they had too long usurped".

As an example of re-evaluation of British foreign endeavours, Sir Julius and Mrs. Carstairs clash over a Chinese gong, used by Briggs to signal for meal.

Reissued at the time when Brexit became a reality and the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn achieved the biggest percentage-point increase in its vote share since 1945,[5] the novel regains its relevance amid the contentions of 21st century politics.