Death ... thought Hugo Braithwaite reflectively ... all items in the antiques and fine art world have entered the trade via death. It doesn't matter whether it's the contents of a humble cottage, a grand house sale, the dispersal of a collector's jealously hoarded treasures, or - as in this case - the personal effects of a family member or famous personality.

Naomi Jessop was still a handsome woman in her late seventies who had been Margaret Gilbert's 'companion, dresser and general factotem', as she described herself when she'd walked into Hugo Braithwaite: Fine Art Gallery the week before. She needed his help, it transpired, to dispose of the late star's possessions and had been recommended by Adele Simmonds, Hugo's own octogenarian chum, who vouched for him as a gentleman and the soul of discretion when dealing with private affairs ...

... but as always, there was an element of darkness surrounding the late Margaret Gilbert affair, which began to manifest in an underlying current of violence and skullduggery once the discovery of her indiscreet autobiography threatened to ruffle more than a few feathers of the living.