On the eve of Elaine Southey's 21st birthday, the residents and neighbours of the Southeys' historic north London home prepare for the party under a pall of anxiety, while a grim surprise awaits in the basement flat. There lies the insidious charmer Ivan Sweet – whose malign influence held so many in its grasp – dead in suspicious circumstances. While reactions of horror – and relief – spread through the party, the truth that a murderer remains at large seeps in slow and cold.To bring the ruthless killer to justice, the young Oxford man Superintendent Paul Grainger must untangle the twisted web of Sweet's wrongdoing – and the dark secrets threatening to ruin each suspect's good name. First published in 1960, Sinclair's stylish debut is a classic murder mystery shot through with a chilling vein of the macabre.