Appleby dines one evening at Allington Park. His curiosity is aroused when Allington mentions his nephew and heir to the estate Martin, whose name Appleby recognises. By the end of the evening Appleby and Allington have found a dead man.

Sir John Appleby dines one evening at Allington Park, the Georgian home of his acquaintance Owain Allington. The evening comes to an end but just as Appleby is leaving, they find a dead man - electrocuted in the son et lumiŠre box which had been installed in the grounds.

Clusters, a great country house, is troubled by bats, as Lord and Lady Osprey complain to their guests. Appleby is indifferent, but he is soon faced with a real challenge - the murder of Lord Osprey, stabbed with an ornate dagger in the library.

Arbuthnot is paying for a rash decision - he recently married a beautiful but slightly amoral girl whose crazy antics caught his rather cynical professional interest. His wife has taken a lover, Rupert Slade, and Arbuthnot wants nothing more than to see him dead - but then it happens!

Inspector Appleby is stranded on a very strange island, with a rather odd bunch of people - too many men, too few women (and one of them too attractive) cause a deal of trouble. But that is nothing compared to later developments.

Appleby's End was where Detective Inspector John Appleby got off the train from Scotland Yard. But that was not the only coincidence. Why did Ranulph Raven's mysterious descendants make such a point of inviting Appleby to spend the night at their house?

There are fifteen stories in this compelling collection, including: Poltergeist - when Appleby's wife tells him that her aunt is experiencing trouble with a Poltergeist, he is amused but dismissive, until he discovers that several priceless artefacts have been smashed as a result.