The Act of Roger Murgatroyd
Gilbert Adair
 Colonel ffolkes and his wife Mary have invited a few house guests to spend the Christmas holidays at their remote country seat in Dartmoor. When the guests have already settled in nicely, three latecomers disturb the peace and quiet of the party. Selina ffolkes, the Colonel's 21-year-old daughter, arrives late on Christmas Day with two admirers in tow: Donald Duckworth, a young American art student; and Raymond Gentry, an ill-mannered gossip columnist who, uninvited and slightly drunk, soon gets on everyone's nerves. The whole action of the novel takes place on Boxing Day when, early in the morning, Gentry is found murdered in the attic. Snowed in and unable to call the police, the party decide to ask their neighbour, a retired Chief Inspector with Scotland Yard, for help. The latter agrees but finds a rival sleuth in Evadne Mount, one of the house guests and a celebrated author of whodunits in her own right. When the Chief Inspector starts his preliminary investigation of the crime, it soon turns out that each of the guests has a skeleton in the cupboard.