To vex his rival from the grave, a famous artist has left twelve paintings to be sold after his death. Each year, one painting is revealed to kick off London's art season. But this release party--bringing family, friends, critics, and collectors together--devolves into scandal. A power outage leaves everyone in the dark, and when the lights come back on, a man lies dead--stabbed through the heart with bejeweled scissors.

Family friend Albert Campion is present during the deadly crime. The too obvious suspect is the artist's granddaughter, Linda Lafcadio, who was engaged to the victim until he brought back a model from Italy and married her. Linda didn't take his suggestion of a m