When a fire is reported at 127 Paton St., Chief Detective Inspector David Morgan immediately expects it was arson. That all changes when the insurance inspectors discover a body hidden inside a piece of furniture. The German immigrant owners, Otto and Rose Steiner, of the furniture store on the street level act suspicious and are evasive about the their connections with the dead man. Once they start investigating Robert Draper, the corpse in the burnt apartment, all sorts of nasty stuff comes out about him and the people in his circle.

Sergeant Shaw, Morgan's assistant, has little sympathy for immigrants and especially German immigrants despite they being Jews who fled Nazism. As the two police officers sort through the lies and false leads, the secrets of many of the characters are revealed. The two officers in a couple of cases through their heavy handed interviews or lack of empathy cause major disruption to the lives of several characters leading to suicide and another murder.

This is an intriguing read with many characters and many twists and turns. The reader may wish to record each character on paper as they appear in the narrative in order to keep them strait. I did notice when composing this review that some key characters appeared on page two and then disappeared until much later in the narrative. ( )