[These notes were made in 1985:]. In a small coastal town, three friends - a lawyer, an actor and an artist - gather for a holiday. The locals include the innkeeper, his son, and the woman his son is in love with: "Decima". Decima and the lawyer (Luke) have had the beginnings of an affair the year before. There is also a man - Mr. Legge - who rejoices in a rather shadowy past, and whom Luke seems to recognize. Mr. Legge is also a precision darts player, and in the course of demonstrating a trick around Luke's hand, he pierces him with a dart; Luke's finger is treated with iodine, he is given brandy by Decima, and shortly thereafter he dies of poison. The intellectual puzzle is how the poison was administered: on the dart, in the iodine, or in the brandy? (Marsh skilfully directs our attention away from the middle possibility, which is the correct one). The emotional puzzle is how to reconcile the fact that the unsympathetic Legge (major suspect #1) looks like being cleared, while the overstated but attractive actor, Sebastian, looks like turning out to be the criminal - and in fact is the criminal in the opinion of the Chief Constable. Alleyn has an opportunity to exhibit the virtues of comradeship in this one, for Br'er Fox, his trusty lieutenant, is poisoned by Legge near the end. A good one, combining most of Marsh's interests (art, actors, poisons...)
