'Tis all a chequerboard of nights and days, where Destiny with men for pieces plays; Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, and one by one back in the closet lays.

Omar Khayyam

Anthony Bathurst was enjoying a quiet lunch when he is approached for help by his waitress, Stella Forrest. Her boyfriend, Peter Oliver, had disappeared after some trouble at the bank where he worked. When Bathurst breaks into Peter's house, he finds the young man dead, having apparently cut his own throat with a razor.

Even Bathurst is convinced that Peter's guilt over some missing money has led to his death, but when Peter's sister convinces him of the importance of a misplaced bathplug, he is soon in hot pursuit of one of the cleverest killers that he has encountered.

Men For Pieces was first published in 1949. This new edition features an introduction by Steve Barge.