Seven people might have murdered Eric Crowther, that mysterious recluse who lived in the gaunt hause whose shaduw fell across the White Cottage, much as the man himself overshadowed the lives of the occupants of the little white house. Indeed, as Detective Chief Inspector W. T. Challoner soon discovered, seven people had good cause to murder him. So it was not lack of evidence but too much of it which sent Challoner and his son Jerry half across Europe in pursuit of the trail.
