Death of a Ghost

John Sebastian Lafcadios ambition to be known as the greatest painter since Rembrandt was not to be thwarted by a matter as trifling as his own death.
A set of twelve sealed paintings is left in the hands of his widow, together with the instruction that she unveil one canvas each year before a carefully selected audience.
Albert Campion is invited to join a cast of gadabouts, muses, and socialites to witness the eighth unveiling but they are treated instead to a murder. The lights go down, and a young man is stabbed to death.
Campion must get to work on the baffling case, with its long suspiciously long line-up of possible killers and soon finds himself having to face his dearest enemy...

Margery Allingham was one of the greatest mid-20th-century practitioners of the detective novel. Alexander McCall Smith
Margery Allingham deserves to be rediscovered. P.D. James
The real queen of crime. Guardian
As addictive as cocaine. Independent