This book is like a fever dream of a murder mystery, although there’s no mystery because the assembled servants of a Geneva estate make it clear from the beginning that no one will emerge from the locked room where Baron and Baroness Klopstock are meeting with secretary Victor Passerat. The three have given instructions that they are not to be disturbed under any circumstances, so the servants spend the night making plans for life after the Klopstocks. They are strangely optimistic about the fact that life will go on without their employers, as they plan to cash in on the media attention in the morning. “The career of domestic service is the thing of the future,” head valet Lister tells his compatriots. “The private secretaries of the famous do well, too” (78). My first Muriel Spark—I’m not sure about more.