Like other Inspector Finch mysteries, this story is narrated from multiple points of view, by witnesses, family and friends of the murder victim, and later by Inspector Finch when he is called to the scene. This adds depth and sympathy to the reader's understanding of the characters, without giving away too many clues to the case. Rex Holt is a wealthy retired businessman, respected but not well loved, unless by his mistress Bea Chilton. His son Martin Holt prefers to live and work independently, accepting no help from his controlling and critical father, resenting his manipulations. Martin clings to memories of his late mother, who kept a collection of letters and poems from a young man she loved one summer, before she married Rex. Now an American researcher has come to see these unpublished poems and letters, perhaps to use them in a forthcoming book on the poet who was killed in the war. Within a day, Rex Holt is dead from a fall which looks like murder. Martin stands to inherit a fortune - unless he is the murderer?
This is an unusual mystery, in which Finch is distracted by numerous crossed threads of family love, romantic love and love poetry. The ending is surprising, complex and not very believable, but it makes a good intellectual exercise. Agatha Christie would have appreciated the various red herrings and timetables and clues. A cover blurb from H.R.F. Keating says this mystery is "better than any of its predecessors... a marvellous tangle". I can't quite decide if it deserves 4 stars for the complex plot and love-story angle, or only 2 stars for being far-fetched and unbelievable. On the whole, I enjoyed reading it and will probably read it again in years to come, so I'll give it 3 1/2 stars. ( )