本书1988年獲欧洲惊险小说金球奖，根据著名的伦敦“魔鬼杰克”案写成。小说以“记者”回故乡调查九年前的一桩悬案为线索，从而展开了对男女主人公的爱情及被黑暗社会吞噬的描写。前半部分是密室杀人，后半部分是开膛手杰克案件。

Johnny Wise came to London from Malaya in 1940, met a girl and, when she was unfaithful to him, committed suicide. Retribution came in 1947, catching up with the principals in Johnny Wise’s death in the course of an Exhibition’s pageant. Which of the eleven visored knights killed the maiden in the tower—and how? Inspector Cockrill is baffled. And his task is not made any easier because all the suspects were anonymous in their suits of armour at the time of the murder…

One of the best of the Merrivales. The plot is simple (compared to earlier Carr works) but effective, and produces a shocking surprise at the end. In short, the book is an intelligent romance novel with an impossible crime worked in.

暴风雨中的孤岛，烛光下的神秘聚会。 小岛的主人杰克·弗兰特，与自己的同母异父弟弟伊万争吵了起来。伊万对哥哥下了个奇怪的恶咒；于是，杰克应声倒下，就此身亡。 当晚，当宾客们去看杰克的尸体，发现尸体竟然高度腐烂，像是死了很久的样子…… 赌徒罗根·肯塞德也是被邀请的客人之一。他如何才能克服警察的愚蠢干扰，凭一己之力，破解这个神秘莫测的死亡之谜？ 不可能犯罪小说奇才黑克·塔伯特的处女作，令人震惊的情节设计，带给人难以企及的阅读快感！

沃爾夫是一位專門揭發宗教詐騙的作家，洛杉磯光明之殿的教主哈斯佛在聚會時卻對他下了「九九神咒」，咒他不出數日內身亡。沒想到咒語竟然成了真，沃爾夫果然離奇在自家書房中遭到近距離槍傷死亡，房間的門窗全都緊閉，儼然是一樁離奇的密室命案。沃爾夫的助理麥特和刑事組副隊長馬歇爾展開抽絲剝繭的調查，甚至還參考約翰．狄克遜．卡爾密室名作《三口棺材》，正當案情陷入膠著時，烏秀拉修女卻帶來一線曙光，難解的謎團終於逐步得以解開……。