John Calvin had reached the end of the road: it had ended at a luxurious villa in Mallorca, and was strewn with currency regulations he had broken or evaded and other men's wives he had taken and discarded. With the law catching up with him, no-one was really surprised when a note is found in his typewriter, and his body in one of the island's remoter beauty spots. Shot through the head. Suicide, obviously. But was it? Inspector Alvarez has found plenty of motives for murder among the English and Spanish residents. Had someone settled a score? But every time Alvarez fits the pieces of the puzzle together, there's one or two pieces left over. And when the puzzle is finally completed, it's a much different picture to what he or anyone else had thought.