En septiembre de 1930, Angela Phipps, hija de un pastor protestante y beneficiaria de una pequeña pero holgada herencia, conoció en la avenida costanera de Bournemouth a Roger Bewlay, un hombre reposado y cortés. Al cabo de dos semanas se casaron. En 1932, Elizabeth Mosnar, rubia, flacucha, artística y desesperadamente sincera, conoció en un concierto, en el Queen's Hall, a Roger Bowdoin. Al cabo de un tiempo se casaron. En la primavera de 1933, Andrea Cooper, secretaria de un consultorio quiromántico en Oxfor Street...

Sir Heny Merrivale on the case of Roger Bewlay, who probably murdered 4 wives, then vanished --now a play about him has appeared, containing facts known only to Bewlay, the police, and one witness. As I recall, this is one of the better Merrivales as a mystery, though not as funny as some. ( )

Not by any means one of the author's best books, although it starts with an intriguing idea. A man called Roger Bewlay is a serial murderer, whose system usually involves marrying a woman for her money, after which she vanishes without trace. The problem for the police (apart from finding the man) is that they can't work out what he has done with the bodies. This has all happened some years before the book proper starts, and one of the central characters, an actor called Bruce Ransom, is sent a script about a killer who is obviously based on Bewlay. To test out the play's denouement, he goes to a country town and pretends to be the killer himself. The problem is that all too often the action depends on people behaving in a totally unbelievable manner - you find yourself asking "but when X was talking about Y, surely he would have mentioned Z?" This particularly applies to the ending, where one character is put in mortal danger while some others watch and do nothing about it. Probably recommendable to completists only. ( )

En septiembre de 1930, Angela Phipps, hija de un pastor protestante y beneficiaria de una pequeña, pero holgada herencia, conoció en la avenida costanera de Bournemouth a Roger Bewlay, hombre reposado y cortés; al cabo de dos semana se casaron. En 1932, Elizabeth Mosnar, rubia, flacucha, artística y desesperadamente sincera, conoció en un concierto, en el Queen´s Hall, a Roger Bowdoin; al cabo de un tiempo se casaron. En la primavera de 1933, Andrés Cooper, secretaria de un consultorio quiromántico en Oxford Street...