A bone and a hank of hair

Gentleman Detective Carolus Deene is called to investigate the disappearance of Mrs. Rathbone, and perhaps the second Mrs. Rathbone, and the third. With little more than the title clues to aid him, Deene tracks a man who seems to have a habit of murdering his wives — a man on the order of John Reginald Christie or Wives-in-the-Bath Smith.

Bizarre, richly comic and sometimes sinister characters lead him to a remote region of East Kent, to London and to an art colony in Cornwall on the way to a surprising conclusion.