Solange Peters 'died' - and so did the scandal and suspicion that haunted her. So now she has the chance for a new life . . . Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club. "You have been very fortunate," Solange Peter's lawyer told her when she was waiting to leave Rome under a suspicion of murder. "If there had been a prosecution you would have had nowhere to hide. As it is, you have a British passport, an air ticket to London that has been provided upon establishing your identity when you get there a sum of money will be made available to enable you to make your plans for a fresh start in any country except Italy." They had even booked a room for her, in short, every contingency had been covered except the one the most astute lawyer couldn't have foreseen. Into this contingency bursts Arthur Crook, as buoyant and enterprising as ever, to find himself once more involved in a complicated mystery whose by-product was murder. A bizarre accident gave Solange the chance to assume a new identity - and, as Julie Taylor, she set out to do just that, as companion to wealthy, neurotic Bianca Duncan. But soon she is plunged into a distorted and terrifying existence. A menace to Bianca's life is growing daily and a strange young man could expose Julie's masquerade. Suddenly the new identity seems far from safe. Tension and struggle mount until Julie is struggling for her life at the hands of a murderer. A most unusual and ingenious novel begins with a Gothic crime amid scenes of Italian splendor. It peruses its labyrinthine and exciting courses to a spell-binding climax beside the English sea. Mr. Gilbert is at his best here.