Tom Pasmore becomes a young detective and discovers that the rich, priveleged society he lives in is rotten to the core. Linking modern (well, it's set sometime in the 60s) corruption and crime to a murder from the 1920s uncovers a lot of secrets, some of which he might ptrefer were left covered. I've loved this book since the first time I read it - the young, bookish hero with the unhappy family life, invalided for more than a year by an accident he can barely remember but which shapes his entire life, the mysterious neighbour the old clippings of past misdeeds that haunt the present, the trip to the holiday resort by the lake where danger starts to close in - it's all wonderful, compelling stuff that captures the essense of the muder mystery genre and imbuing it with atmosphere and a complex, pleasing story.