Gray (Graham Lanceton) is a writer living in poverty and loneliness in a shabby cottage in Epping Forest. He has written a book, The Wine of Astonishment, but lately he isn't writing at all. He is still upset because his mother remarried when he was 15; she now lives in France and Gray doesn't have too much to do with her anymore.
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He did have a wonderful love affair with a very rich young woman, but she asked him to do something he just couldn't do. She kept demanding that he do this terrible thing, so finally he ended the relationship. But he is still obsessed with her.
Gray is called by his step-father in France that his mother is dying. So he goes to France. While there, he remembers that he was supposed to take care of his godmother's dog while she went on vacation. She was going to use the spare key to take the dog in while Gray was at a party - a party he didn't even get to because of the call from his step-father. He panicks about the dog - the poor animal will be thirsty and starving. He doesn't have many friends, and the only person he can possibly think of to save the dog is Drusilla, his ex-lover. When he gets her on the phone, she sounds like she still really loves Gray, and says she will take care of the dog. Gray's mother dies, and shortly after that, a call from Drusilla: he must come to talk to the vet taking care of the dog.
Although it's a bad time to leave France, he goes, so excited about the prospect of seeing Drusilla; she says she doesn't care about what she had asked him to do, she just wants him.
Gray goes back to England, can't find the vet's address, can't find Drusilla, and discovers there has been a murder in his hovel. Is it someone who broke in or is there more to the story?
The review of this Book prepared by Tena van't Foort