Nineteen-fifties London. A time of unusual ferment, especially for young Lady Margaret Millett, ex-deb-of-the-year and the intriguing narrator of Peter Dickinson's latest novel of suspense. Caught in a life of little apparent purpose, Lady Margaret (literally in mid-yawn at a tedious party) chances upon a striking stranger, and almost immediately her world begins to change. Within a week she's been hired by a fashionable British magazine and has begun to escape the grip of her domineering mother. A few weeks more, and the stranger is her lover. So begins a surprising year of happiness and self-discovery -- new friendships, challenging work, a rather unconventional but very sincere love -- until, out of the blue, her new world collapses in inexplicable tragedy. Thirty years later, Lady Margaret, now a best-selling romantic novelist, answers the telephone. A voice from that long-dead existence speaks, and suddenly the rules and assumptions of her life are shattered again. Crucial allegiances of love and family are suspect. What was once a tragic death is now very possibly a murder. For Lady Margaret, the past is no longer a pleasant memory. Guarded secrets must be reopened as she is forced to rediscover and reassess a life that has led not only to fame -- but also to death.

Genre: Mystery