This book is better than the later ones of Mr Cook that I have read (being released in 1980)It still has his big failing in my eyes of being far too wordy. Its only a short book, but it seems that with all the words he tries to put in to explain things it actually makes the actual conclusion of the crime far too hurried. Was good to read one of his books that actually had a kind of plot you could understand, but as I said it all felt rather hurried to me.Read if you like Colombo stuff, but remember there are far better crime mysteries out there.