The first novel by one of the greatest mystery writers of the
twentieth century, in which she introduced her popular amateur
detective, Lord Peter Wimsey.
A famous London financier vanishes from his bedroom, leaving no trace.
Across town, a corpse is found in an architect's bathtub, wearing
nothing but a pair of pince-nez. The body is not that of the missing
financier, so--whose body is it? When Lord Peter Wimsey is asked by his
mother, the Dowager Duchess of Denver, to help clear her architect of
suspicion, he eagerly obliges. With the assistance of his valet, Bunter,
a skilled amateur photographer, he quickly becomes convinced that the
two cases are linked, despite the skepticism of the police. But what
begins as an amusing puzzle takes on darker overtones, as Lord Peter
wrestles with intrusive memories of his traumatic service in the
trenches of World War I--and as his own life is endangered by the
murderer he is about to unmask.