(Findley’s) new novel is set against the backdrop of the Stratford Festival in Ontario, a milieu that he expertly cracks open. Seattle Times
A scandalously juicy novel... Entertaining backstage backstabbing exposes the staggering consequences of overweening ambition. The Gazette Montreal

On a summer evening a gardener's spade slices a telephone cable into distant silence. The resulting disconnection is devastating. With the failure of one call to reach the house, an ambitious young actor becomes the victim of sexual blackmail. The blocking of a second call leads to murder.

A small, private museum on the edge of Hampstead Heath has been inherited by three siblings, all of whom are required by the family trust to sign any new lease. Without the new lease the museum will have to close. One brother, Neville Dupayne, is adamant he won't sign. And then the housekeeper, Mrs Tally Clutton, discovers Neville's body in his still blazing car...