Summary: Campion and Stanislaus Oates investigate two murders connected to the house of Belle Lafcadio and the unveiling of famous works of her deceased husband John.

Fairly early on in this book, Campion and Inspector Stanislaus Oates know the identity of the murderer. But they lack evidence for an arrest. The suspenseful buildup in this book involves Campion’s efforts to expose the murderer, obtaining sufficient evidence for an arrest of a murderer clever in covering tracks. It’s a dangerous game, one that nearly costs Campion his life.

The setup is the unveiling of a painting by deceased artist John Lafcadio. Before his death, he painted a series of paintings, packed into twelve containers, one to be opened for display and sale at the home of his widow, Belle Lafcadio. Max Fustian, an art dealer, helps manage the shows and sale of the art. For seven years, all has gone well. Not so this year,

A boyfriend of Belle’s granddaughter Linda, Tommy, shows up at the show, fresh home from a painting trip to Italy, married to a model in order to bring her into the country. When the lights come on after a brief outage, Tommy is found dead of a knife wound to the heart. Suspicion hangs on Linda until Fustian confesses to the murder. His story doesn’t hold up but no one is arrested. There is not enough evidence to arrest anyone, and Campion, an old family friend of the Lafcadios doesn’t think Linda guilty.

Then odd things begin happening. All of Tommy’s work begins disappearing, including a piece in Campion’s possession. Then another murder, of Claire Potter, an artist who, along with her husband, lives at Belle’s and works in a garden studio. The cause is found to be nicotine poisoning. Some clues point clearly to the murderer, but they offer too little basis for an arrest. Drawings made by Tommy could be a key piece of evidence. A trip to the country cottage where the drawings might be found result in an encounter with the murderer and the drawings but ashes in the fireplace.

Fearing that Belle could be next on the murder list, Campion uses a remaining drawing by Tommy, provided by Linda, to lure the killer into a meeting where he puts his own life at risk, hoping to expose the killer before another connected with the Lafcadio household dies. But will it cost him his own life?

What makes this such a good read is the fascinating character of the killer, genius tinged with madness. Knowing the identity of the killer builds the suspense, given the cleverness of the killer, managing to kill Claire from a distance. We fear for Belle, then Campion. And for good reason. ( )

Audiobook narrated by Frances Matthews who I'm beginning to enjoy, in the way I prefer James Saxon reading Ngaio Marsh books.

Through knowing Belle, the widow, Campion is invited to the latest unveiling of one of John Lafacdio's works - which are released at the rate of one a year after his death. The great and the good are at the unveiling, as well as some of the not so great, and during the party the lights go out (someone had failed to feed the meter). When the lights come back on, Tommy Dacre, Lafcardio's grand-daughter's fiance, is found stabbed to death with a pair of ornate scissors. Campion soon finds himself investigating not only Dacre's murder, the systematic loss of Dacre's work, another death and, ultimately, finds himself almost losing his own life after making a fool of himself in drink.

Belle's house is a rather Bohemian 1930s set up - the housekeeper is one of Lafcardio's Italian models (now well in her 60s), another inhabitant is another ageing ex-model now fascinated with auras and the such like. A married couple of artists, of varying talents, live in a studio in the garden, whilst Lafardio's paint mixer lives elsewhere on the estate. The granddaughter is an early candidate as the one time fiancée, and who is ditched for another Italian model called RosaRosa.

This book isnt really a "whodunnit" as Campion, the police and the reader know who the killer is fairly early on. All attempts to unmask the killer in such a way as to bring along a conviction fail at every turn. The denouement at the end means that Campion is going to be the final victim and it's luck and the police who prevent this from happening, rather that any major interaction from Campion.

Once the second murder has happened and the investigation dropped off, many of the secondary characters disappear, with focus being made purely on trying to prove that the murderer did it, and why. The story is spread over several months, with large gaps in between and everything appears to be a watching and waiting game. Campion has been asked to act as Belle's proxy with regards to the paintings and in this way he manages to put himself in danger, going out to dinner on the fateful night with the murderer and being manipulated into life threatening situations. The description of Campion being drunk and going around ton, making a fool of himself, is a rather decent set of telling.

Not perhaps my favourite Campion, but still has some interesting set pieces in it to change thi

A pretty good outing for Campion. A painter who died wanted his legacy and the public interest in his work to continue, and so arranged for the annual release of an unseen painting. The end of this ten-year plan is in sight, and Murder ensues.

The motive isn’t hard to see, but the murderer is very crafty. Champion’s at his best here: kind, clever, and not at all fatuous. Recommended. ( )

This is pleasantly convoluted. The painter John Lafcardio wanted to put one over on a fellow painter, so he arranged to have a series of his paintings crated up and unveilled one a year after his death. That way the fellow would not eve be able to escape from under his shadow. So far, so much fun. Only this year at the unveilling, an artist who has been engaged to the painter's granddaughter but now married his model to bring her to England is stabbed with a really ugly pair of scissors. Campion is present and so follows the detection os a mystery where the artistic temprament gets in the way quite a lot. This is an interesting case in that the murder is identified long before the case can be solved, due to lack of evidence. It's an interesting side to the problem, you know whodunit, but can't prove it. ( )

Portrays a world that doesn't and didn't exist, I think couldn't exist, but has such charm that the book can be re-read repeatedly. The "mystery", as usual, is necessary to give some structure but is unimportant otherwise. "Mannered", but the manner is part of the charm.