Chief Inspector Morse of the Thames Valley Police investigates the death of the man in a colorful Rastafarian costume who wins First Prize at the New Year's Eve costume party at the Haworth Hotel in Oxford. The man is found dead the next morning in Room 3 of the hotel's annexe, without a scrap of identification. Six guests returned to the annexe after the party, and thus they make up Morse's list of suspects. But.....why have they all vanished? This title marks the seventh appearance of the idiosyncratic Morse, and of his subordinate and friend, the long-suffering Sergeant Lewis.
Insp. Morse investigates a New Year's Eve Oxford murder.