A Shakespearean actor shuffles off his mortal coil in this "skillfully wrought" country-house mystery ( The New York Times). Sir Henry Ancred, a celebrated Shakespearean actor, has arranged to have his portrait painted by Agatha Troy, wife of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. But when Ancred is killed at his own birthday party, leaving behind a family full of suspects, Troy's work ends and Inspector Alleyn's begins . . . "It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." — New York Magazine "A peerless practitioner of the slightly surreal, English-village comedy-mystery." — Kirkus Reviews