A little above average Marsh. Reading in order of publication makes for a nice progression in the way Alleyn interacts with his "crew". Inspector Fox is still learning French, he moved to an advanced class, Sergeant Bailey gets to fingerprint all the suspects and Nigel Bathgate the young wide eye journalist, Alleyn's Watson, gets to stumble upon the murder in this quite far fetched tale of deception, addictions and false identity. I didn't spot the culprit at all, then again I wasn't really looking for it. I was enjoying the playful interaction between the "team".