Detective Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover is the most idle and avaricious hero in all of crime fiction. Why should he even be bothered to solve the case? One February evening in northern England, a young woman is shot in the head and left in a coma. Eight months later she dies, thus becoming a welcome excuse to dispatch the odious Inspector Dover as far as possible from London. It soon appears that Isobel Slatcher could have been smothered in her hospital bed with a pillow. Now Dover may have two murderers to catch: one who pulled the trigger, the other the last visitor she had in her short lifetime. If, that is, the town's warring Catholics and Protestants will only stop distracting him. 'Something quite out of the ordinary.' - Daily Telegraph 'Joyce Porter is a joy... Dover is unquestionably the most entertaining detective in fiction.' - Guardian 'Plotted with the technique of a virtuoso.' - New York Times 'Wonderfully funny.' - Spectator 'Dover is wildly, joyously unbelievable; and may he remain so for our comic delight.' - Sun 'You will be fascinated by his sheer dazzling incompetence. Porter has a keen eye, a wicked sense of comedy, and a delightfully low mind.' - Harper's AUTHOR: Joyce Porter was born in Cheshire, England and educated at King's College, London. In 1949 she joined the Women's Royal Air Force, and, on the strength of an intensive course in Russian, qualified for confidential work in intelligence. Porter became best known for her series of novels featuring Detective Inspector Wilfred Dover.