Patricia Wentworth

Clandestine operative Benbow Smith recruits a former Secret Service agent to bring down an enemy of the free world. Soon the agents are enmeshed in a spiraling web of blackmail, intrigue, and murder, fighting a predatory criminal who is a master of deceit and manipulation.

In Dead Man's Copse, Mary Stokes discovers the body of a young woman, but when she returns with the police the body has disappeared. Later a woman reports that her lodger, who matches the dead girl's description, is missing. Another mystery for Miss Silver.

When young Hugo Ross is drawn into a despicable plot involving government intrigue and espionage, he enlists the help of the esteemed Benbow Smith, an enigmatic figure connected to London's Foreign Office. With his own life on the line, how much is he willing to risk for his country?

Young Jeremy Ware is suspected of stealing important papers, and Colonel Garrett of the Secret Service consults Benbow Smith about it. Even Rosalind Denny, still grieving for her late husband, suspects Jeremy. But when the young man, trying to exonerate himself, meets a beautiful sleepwalker in a cellar, matters quickly progress to a case of murder…