Troy Alleyn wasn't sure why she accepted the commission to paint the portrait of the well-known actor Sir Henry Ancred. She arrived at Ancreton Manor to find Sir Henry in poor health and suffering a series of merciless practical jokes from his grandchildren. Then death visits the manor, and the family in mourning constitutes a formidable assembly: the self-important Pauline, the egregious Cedric, acquisitive Sonia, and Milly who laughs perpetually at nothing. Troy is overwhelmingly relieved by the arrival of her husband, the redoubtable Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard…

Dame Ngaio Marsh was born in New Zealand in 1899 and died in February 1982. She wrote over thirty detective novels.

Among James Saxon's numerous television roles were Pothinus in Cleopatra, Marcus Hammond MP in Metropolis, Dr Hatton in A Wing and a Prayer, Fuzzy Brighton in McCallum, and In the Red (as Oswald Twist). Among his films were Les Misérables, A Prayer for the Dying, and as Bertie in Biggles, while his stage work included The Candidate, Lady Windermere's Fan and as Mr Bumble in Oliver! He died in 2003.