Duplicate Death

A fashionable card party ends when a guest is found strangled, and a second death soon repeats the method. The resemblance between the crimes suggests a single plan, but the victims’ different relationships create conflicting motives.

Inspector Hemingway’s inquiry centres on a secretary whose past makes her an easy suspect and on the man determined to clear her. The investigation uses social performance, blackmail and hidden identity to test whether two matching murders necessarily have the same explanation.