[1][2] It is the forty first in her long-running series featuring Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard.

[3] Published by the Collins Crime Club, the title references the popular music hall song Ask a Policeman.

An elderly lady, a leftover from the Edwardian era, reports the disappearance of her nephew, a journalist.

What seems at first a routine case quickly becomes a hunt for a murderer when the police investigate his last known address, a large rambling house in St John's Wood.

Efforts to discover the truth are further hampered by the death or disappearance of several witnesses.