As usual, there is a lot going on in this book besides the mystery itself. James is wonderful at drawing pictures with words, pictures that include the scenery and personality of not only people but inanimate objects.Cordelia Gray has been hired as a bodyguard/personal assistant for a fading stage actress who has been receiving vaguely threatening letters for some time. She is due to perform in a private performance at the home of a friend of hers on an island off the coast of England. Essentially, this is the traditional closed-room mystery. There are only a certain number of people who could have committed the crime, and no one particularly cared for her either so there are lots of motives.
By the end, the killer essentially goes free, two other people die, but no one goes to prison. In typical James' fashion, good doesn't always save the day, and bad doesn't always end up losing.
Good psychological study.
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