Presently unemployed, his girlfriend in India, Robert Amiss has agreed once again to go undercover for his Scotland Yard pals- -Detective Superintendent Jim Milton and Sergeant Ellis Pooley (The English School of Murder, 1990, etc.)--this time hiring on as a waiter in London's private ffeatherstonehaugh (pronounced ``Fanshaw'') club: Its newly appointed secretary has fallen to his death on the premises, and the suicide verdict has left Milton dissatisfied. Robert's secret probing turns up some very questionable practices in a club once prosperous and characterized by its raffishness, now almost the private preserve of five elderly members who don't take kindly to suggestions of change. There are two more deaths--definitely murders--before a lot of research and some inspiration on Robert's part solve a stubborn puzzle. The plot is bizarre but psychologically convincing--add to it a vivid cast of characters, from bullying, snuff-covered Colonel Flagg and old but still active rouÇ Fishbane to kitchen manager Gooseneck and his lover, the young Indian waiter-student Sunil. The writer's style is robust, witty, ironic and literate. All in all, a delicious romp.
