Jephthah Mottram is a wealthy businessman whose life is insured by a policy which pays a huge sum to his beneficiaries should he die before the age of 65, and after that provides an annuity. During his annual fishing retreat at a rural and decrepit Midlands inn, he dies one night of gas poisoning. There are complications. What is to be made of his attempt to negotiate a settlement with the insurance company because of a diagnosis he had received before his holiday? And what of the disposition of the three gas taps in his bedroom at the hostelry?

Inevitably, Mottram’s death requires investigation, not only by the police but by the insurance company’s brilliant—albeit lazy—detective, Miles Bredon . Bredon is accompanied by his wife—a very sharp Watson to Bredon’s Holmes —as well as a police detective who had served with Bredon in the Great War.

Ronald Knox populates this story of detection with a strong cast of supporting characters, adding a variety of viewpoints to the perception of Mottram’s untimely death. He also gave the book the subtitle “A Detective Story Without a Moral”—perhaps a subtle invitation from the author to his readers to draw a different conclusion?