Inspector Cockrill has finally booked a holiday, destined for the Mediterranean with a motley crew of fellow vacationers. By the time they have reached the island of San Juan el Pirata, the tour group is a bubbling pot of rivalries and tension between friends and lovers, threatening to boil over into violence. Beneath the beating summer sun, as seven holidaymakers lounge and swim on the beach under Cockrill’s watch, the eighth of their number is slain.

With reason to suspect that it must have been one of the suspects on the beach, Cockrill must face up to what appears to be an impossible case, as the island’s own police forces manoeuvre to ensnare whichever suspect will help close the case most quickly. First published in 1956, Brand’s classic novel skewers the package holiday experience while unravelling one of the most audacious and devilish mysteries in the history of the genre.