Death in a Domino

The Murder Game is about to begin. The house guests have all pulled their names from the bowl, donned black domino capes, and the “murderer” and “victim” have been chosen. Their names are a secret, of course. Then the lights are shut off… and the game begins. Shots ring out, there is much confusion, but it is all part of the game. Then the lights come up—and the master of the house, Lord Studholme, is found shot in the head, an apparent suicide. But this is no suicide… it is murder! The guests include Petal, Studholme’s daughter, and her new fiancé, Guy Kennion; Princess Amelia; the writer Adrian Chiddiatt and his wife Anna; General Piddinghoe, Studholme’s father-in-law; and Joan and her father, Commissioner Holland. They all despised Studholme to one degree or another—influential newspaper publisher, unloving father and inveterate womanizer that he was—and one by one, they start confessing to his murder. But who is the real murderer?

Roland Pertwee was born May 17, 1885 in Brighton, Sussex. He began his career as an actor before joining the British Army in the First World War, and wrote his first novel while recovering from wounds in a London hospital. Retiring from the Army, Pertwee pursued a career in the British film industry, finding steady employment from the 1910s to the 50s writing plays, film scripts, serial novels and short stories. His most successful play, written with Harold Dearden, was "Interference," which was not only a hit in England but on Broadway. He was the father of both Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee and fellow playwright and screenwriter Michael Pertwee. He died in London, England, in 1963 at age 77.