GUILTY CONSCIENCE

London lawyer Rosa Epton (The Seeds of Murder, etc.) is visited one day by Evelyn Henshaw—wealthy, overdressed, and claiming to be in danger from second husband Ralph, who, according to her, had disposed of his first wife, Jean. Evelyn suspects that Ralph is involved in an affair with his secretary Frances Figgord and wants to insure an investigation if she, Evelyn, should die. This strange interview becomes even stranger when Evelyn disappears; Ralph Henshaw turns up, wanting to become Rosa's client; and the body of young Stefan Michalowski, seemingly a protÇgÇ of Evelyn's, is pulled from a pond on her estate. After a fire at the estate house and another fatality, Ralph Henshaw is arrested, greatly upsetting his daughter Anthea. Rosa makes a few trips to Evelyn's sister in France before a series of unbelievable confrontations end in further tragedy—and a messy solution. None of the off-the-wall characters here rings any truer than does the makeshift plot. Disappointing stuff from a writer who's often more than just barely readable.