Vernon Loder byl pseudonymem Johna George Hazlette Vaheyho, anglo-irského spisovatele. Pod různými jmény se věnoval rozličným žánrům, což naznačuje jeho literární všestrannost. Jeho tvorba tak nabízí pestrou škálu stylů a témat pro čtenáře.
Ned Hope, a writer of detective stories, takes Nancy Johnson, his fiancée, to view his recent purchase, Fen Court, a neglected house with three acres located in the Essex marshes. While touring the property, they discover 3 bodies in a pond, marking the beginning of a real life detective tale.
"Inspector Brews, having been summoned to Marsh House to meet the chief editor of The Daily Record, instead finds Hay Smith's body, still clutching the torn corners of several sheets of paper, near to an open window in the newspaper proprietor, Sir James Sitheby's, study. Brews is faced with a motey crew of suspects at Sir James' country house -- including journalists, an editor, a gossip-writer and a novelist, all seemingly with an axe to grind." -- Back cover.
The delight of Christmas shoppers at the unveiling of a London department store's famous window display turns to horror when one of the mannequins is discovered to be a dead body ... Mander's Department Store in London's West End is so famous for its elaborate window displays that on Monday mornings crowds gather to watch the window blinds being raised on a new weekly display. On this particular Monday, just a few weeks before Christmas, the onlookers quickly realise that one of the figures is in fact a human corpse, placed among the wax mannequins. Then a second body is discovered, and this striking tableau begins a baffling and complex case for Inspector Devenish of Scotland Yard