Fifth of the long-running mystery series with Inspector Arnold and amateur detective Desmond Merrion.

Mr Gantley, owner of the Downhamshire Courier, is found dead in his car one Monday morning not far from his native town of Carnford. He had been shot through the head. Lady Gantley, Gantley's sister-in-law, had died suddenly from a heart attack on the Saturday evening, and from her will it appeared that in the event of her death preceding that of Gantley her fortune shall go to her niece and nephew, Charles and Myrtle Harrington. If Gantley died first then her fortune should go to her companion, Sylvia Chadwick, and her brother Percy. Both Inspector Driffield, who is a local man, and Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard are baffled by the crime. A lucky meeting with Desmond Merrion brings that skilled investigator into the case, to which he eventually succeeds in supplying a brilliant and surprising solution.