This cleverly crafted mystery takes place at a boys' school in Sussex. Crispin's hero, Gervase Fen, has been invited to give the prizes at the school's speech day. Another part of the festivities is s joint production of a Shakespeare play by the school and the local girls' high school.

Things go badly amiss when the leading lady is badly scared two days before the play and disappears the next night. Adding to this are the murders of two teachers.

It's a clever mystery, full of great characters and wonderful description and solved by Fen. I raced through this classic mystery.