Percival Pyke-Period isn't all he seems to be. Although he's rich and displays good breeding, he's not of aristocratic birth but has taken the identity of a now-deceased noble family. His divorced neighbor, Harold Cartell, has taken residence in the manor house but has not endeared himself to anyone, including the servants. After Pyke-Period's antique cigarette case is stolen, Cartell suspects his ex-wife's niece and her lower class boyfriend and demands its return. Cartell is later found in a newly dug sewer ditch along with the cigarette case and the concrete sewage pipe that crushed his skull. Luckily for Alleyn and Fox, all the suspects attend one of Pike-Period's luncheons. As a sidebar, an art forger is passing his paintings as Agatha Troy's.
—duke1029