Private investigator Ludovic Travers and his friend and frequent colleague, Scotland Yard Superintendent George Wharton, uncover strange and deadly doings at an English seaside resort.

Murder in a locked room, an impossible disappearance, and a lot of residents who seem to be living in fear. Former detective Charles Venables must follow sometimes gruesome clues to find the secrets behind the terrors of the Garden Hotel.

some "bright young people" are invited to a late night gathering after a charity ball - but what they find is hardly what they expect: the wrong owner of the house, a vanishing lady, and a champagne-stealing young constable are pieces of a puzzle, and so is the uninvited guest: Death.

In only a few minutes time, Ruth Miller, moving to a new apartment in a lovely boarding hotel called Hope House, saw her dream of peace and happiness transformed into a horrible nightmare. What had happened - and was anyone else safe from the madness there?