This classic country house mystery, first published in 1933, contrasts the splendours and frivolities of the English upper classes with the sombre overhang of the First World War and the irresistible complications of deadly familial relationships. Anthony Gilbert is a pen name of Lucy Beatrice Malleson (1899-1973) and Death in Fancy Dress is considered to be one of her finest works. It appeared just before Malleson introduced the mystery readership to her famed, unconventional, and magnificently named, detective Arthur Crook.