An entertaining story involving the murder of an unpleasant ex-policeman in the garden of a London club, one of whose other members is the elderly Dr Davie (whom I strongly suspect to be a self-portrait by the author). Some language tapes turn out to have been used for nefarious purposes, although the way in which the investigating policeman Mays asks Davie to help him is highly implausible - he visits someone who may be involved and fails to ask him any pertinent questions at all, although he gets some useful information completely by accident. The denouement, at an opera performance in an obscure hall in the London suburbs, is moderately exciting, though again Davie's contribution is partly accidental. There are some amusingly old-fashioned observations about pop music (the most recent song mentioned is "Slow Boat to China") and the remarkable claim is made that almost anyone knows the famous opera arias!
Incidentally, I wonder if this is the first murder mystery to come complete with a recipe (for the author's favoured method of making Creme Brulee)? ( )