At Mullion Castle, sumptuous stately home, we meet the Earl and his family. Charles Honeybath, has been commissioned to paint a portrait of the Earl's wife, but finds himself at the helm of a complex investigation involving ancestral works of art and a young under gardener.

Under cover of night, Honeybath is taken to a house and asked to stay while he completes a portrait; but when he returns to his studio, he discovers that the bank next door has been robbed and that he is under suspicion!

Businessman Carl Carson decides to make a dash for South America to escape the economic slump. He invents an imaginary son and plans to stage a fictitious kidnapping - after all, what could be more natural than a father liquidating his assets to pay the ransom demand?

Respected Fine Art experts are deceived in one of the most intriguing murder cases Inspector Appleby has ever faced, beginning with Gribble, a collector of forgeries whose latest acquisition is found to be a forged forgery!

Sir John Appleby's son, Bobby, assumes his father's detective role in this baffling crime. When Bobby finds a dead man, in a bunker on a golf course, he notices something rather strange - the first finger of the man's right hand is missing.

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.

Lewis Packford, the great Shakespearean scholar, was thought to have discovered a book annotated by the Bard - but there is no trace of this valuable object when Packford apparently commits suicide. Sir John Appleby finds a mixed bag of suspects at the dead man's house.