This is an extremely clever detective story, the first novel of a schoolmaster at a famous English public school. Most of the prinicipal characters are introduced to us on board a liner en route for England. During the voyage one of the passengers mysteriously disappears. The main characters next foregather at a week-end house party where, following the theft of a pearl necklace and a queer game of planchette, one of the party is murdered. One of the most attractive features of this story is the extremely neat solution, which brings to a very satisfactory end a really brilliant story.