Description:Missing from her home... Mrs. Daphne Gosse, whose husband seeks her
return. It is feared she might be the victim of foul play. A written
insertion—hoax or desperate husband's cry for help?—to the Personal
Column of the Daily Echo prompts the Editor to alert Detective
Superintendent George Rogers to investigate a complex case of domestic
drama. Daphne, thirty-one, sleekly, darkly lithe, with a "splendid
body," is the wife of Clifford Gosse, unequivocally described as "the
sort of chappie to have cut the lady into bite-sized pieces and fed her
to the dogs." Secretary to the apparently blameless headmaster of the
local school, Daphne appears to have a history of amorous adventures and
to have led a reckless personal life. A nocturnal conflagration
intended to conceal a badly mutilated body, the mystery of the victim's
missing solicitor, the discovery of a subterranean tomb, all point to a
killer of exceptional ingenuity