The seventeenth Phryne Fisher murder mystery Melbourne, 1929. The year starts off for glamorous private investigator Phryne Fisher with a rather trying heat wave and more mysteries than you could prod a parasol at. Simultaneously investigating the apparent suicide of a man on St Kilda beach and trying to find a lost, illegitimate child who could be heir to a fortune, Phryne needs all her wits about her.

"A Blanche Hampton mystery".

Jonathan doesn't like Robin, the English master at his boarding school. It's not his inability to control his classes that he dislikes, nor even his incompetence as a teacher - it's his complete indifference to the feelings of anyone but himself. Nevertheless, Jonathan is stunned when it's announced that Robin has been found dead - drowned in the river close to the school. The coroner rules that it was suicide, but Jonathan soon comes to have reasons for doubting this . . .