Herring in the Smoke

Roger Norton Vane is dead. Twenty years ago he went for a walk in the Thai jungle with his partner, Tim MacDonald, and never returned. After years of wild speculation, fruitless searches and unconfirmed sightings, finally his death is to be made official and somebody will inherit his accumulated wealth. But at his memorial service, a man interrupts proceedings, claiming to be Vane. He installs himself in his old flat, evicting Tim MacDonald, and sets about proving his right to Vane's money. Crime writer Ethelred Tressider is as surprised as anyone. He has been commissioned to write a biography of Vane and finds the man vague, full of scurrilous anecdotes. It soon becomes clear that many people wish Vane had stayed dead and that his anecdotes had died with him.