One Lover Too Many

In private Jane and Derek Humphries play a game of pretense involving imaginary lovers and when, one morning, she gives him a letter to post and coolly tells him that it is addressed to her latest lover he assumes that this is part of their game. Then doubts begin to fester, and when she she disappears after a quarrel, he is forced to face the fact that the imaginary lovers might be real, particularly since he knows she has a morbid dread of being alone at night.

To trace her he seeks the help of Samson, the fat, unorthodox enquiry agent featured in some of the author's previous books. Samson uncovers a strange situation which, although linked to the private game would never have been predicted by the anxious husband, and the events inevitably move to a dramatic climax.

This novel of suspense belongs to the honorable tradition in which a crime at the end is the almost inevitable outcome of the events preceding it.

Miles Tripp has a distinctive style and a talent for writing stories which are off-beat and sometimes even quirky. Here he writes of an elaborate sexual game that ends in misunderstanding and tragedy.