Nine guests arrive for a weekend party at Tenon Oaks, a Tudor country house set in nine acres of the English countryside. The visitors all know Tenon Oaks by repute. It is a show-piece in the county of Wiltshire, with a full contingent of domestic staff, fine entertaining rooms and positioned atop a hill with fine views over the wooded parkland below. The host, millionaire financier Mr Copolis, is absent. His private secretary, Victor Mand, informs the assembled party – all investors in Mr Coplis’s financial schemes – that the host is sick and confined to his room. However, after dinner whilst enjoying cocktails and cigars in the piano room, the investors are informed that all their money has been lost. Between midnight and 1 a.m. Mr Copolis is murdered…

About the Author

Vernon Loder was one of no less than nine pseudonyms adopted by Anglo-Irish detective fiction author, Jack Vahey.