Death Prone

Hadrian Bascombe, eccentric bachelor recluse, has summoned the remaining members of his family to announce his imminent death. Drawn by varying amounts of greed and curiosity, they assemble to learn that his considerable fortune is to pass to a single beneficiary he will choose that night. Each is interviewed in turn, becoming a victim of Hadrian's malicious sense of humor, but when the company leaves he has given no more than ambiguous hints of his intentions.
On their way home, the two youngest guests meet with a serious accident. The Thames Valley Police are alerted to possible foul play, and when further violence reduces the number of potential heirs, Superintendent Mike Yeadings and his team decide that the family has now become death-prone. Someone among these cultured, articulate, and urbanely confident individuals could be a determined killer. But is greed the only motive they must look for? As each in turn becomes the object of suspicion, secrets are uncovered and strange quirks of character and personal betrayals come to light. In the macabre elimination dance of death only the ancient Hadrian seems to remain inviolate at its center, cackling at the ironic vagaries of fate.
Yeadings himself, painfully reminded of an early tragic love affair, almost breaks the golden rule of not becoming emotionally involved. With a stubborn refusal to deny the unacceptable, he follows an intuitive line that ends in confrontation with an embittered killer.