Publisher's Weekly
Middle-class English society served under glass is the main course of this surprisingly uninspired offering from the prolific Ferrars ( Answer Came There None ) . Patrick and Henrietta Carey are visited by a well-mannered Scotswoman who is seeking the money owed her by her estranged husband, who she says is Patrick Carey. All three are bewildered, even after they realize that she had married Patrick's somewhat pathological brother David. The woman leaves before the Careys' planned party begins. Patrick is a university lecturer, and their guest list includes fellow faculty members, an American visitor, Patrick's spurned mentor, an insecure underling and other tweedy academics. That same evening the Scotswoman perishes in a fire at the mentor's home and, not long afterward, the bobbies appear to question Patrick. This is an insular tale riddled with gaps and missed opportunities. The character of David is inadequately explored and the tasty possibility of Patrick's being a villain isn't pursued. Ferrars seems to have developed this bare-bones tale on auto-pilot; it fails even to hint at her usual cunning and style.