Paul's first wife and their young son died under odd circumstances, and an insurance company launches a secret investigation about Vera's possible role in those deaths.

The novel was the winner of the 1960 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France and received Simon & Schuster's Inner Sanctum Mystery Award for 1962.

[1] Anthony Boucher writing for The New York Times Book Review called it "a lethally potent cocktail", "brilliant novel of murder, skillfully and economically conducted in the documentary method.

"[2] Robert Kirsch wrote in The Los Angeles Times: "its emphasis is never on the violence… but rather on the terror of moral bankruptcy, the cruelty of the living, one to another.

"[3] Sybille Bedford called it "a cool, swift, elegant, ruthless tale" and "the most originally handled modern detective story I have read".

A Portman Production for Channel 4, directed by Jack Gold, with Cherie Lunghi, Jonathan Pryce, Carmen Du Sautoy and Pinkas Braun.