In the plush Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, law officers are assembled to discuss the control of drug smuggling. Among them is the intrepid Inspector Henry Tibbett, using the occasion to combine business and a holiday with his wife, Emmy.

But when an important official is found slumped across his desk, a dagger in his back, the investigation becomes uncomfortably intimate. The suspects are Henry’s colleagues, acquaintances, and dinner companions – and Tibbett finds himself unable to account for his whereabouts.

'For classic detection, [Moyes] is far and away best' Times Literary Supplement

'A queen of crime … her name can be mentioned in the same breath as Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh' Daily Herald

'One of the deftest practitioners of the British procedural detective novel' New York Times

'Gripping … very neatly worked out' Evening Standard

'Intricate plots, ingenious murders, and skillfully drawn, often hilarious, characters' Mystery Scene

'Really good detection' The Spectator

'Ingenious and elegant, with nary a trace of formula' Kirkus

'Patricia Moyes tells great tales in fascinating settings, and her Scotland Yard detective, Henry Tibbett, is perhaps the most believable of anyone detecting in this decade' Los Angeles Times

Patricia Moyes (1923-2000) was an acclaimed British mystery novelist, best known for her long running series featuring Inspector Henry Tibbett. The tenth book in the series, Who Saw Her Die?, was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe award, and Moyes was inducted into The Detection Club, presided over by Agatha Christie, in the same year. Her early career also included work as a radar operator in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force; as a screenwriter – with credits including the Robert Hamer film School for Scoundrels and Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected –; as an assistant editor for Vogue magazine; and as a translator.