When a killer stalks a dinner-and-gameshooting party on an English country estate, the corpses drop like pheasants. High-living Albert Edward (Bertie), Prince of Wales, is the fumbling sleuth and rakish narrator, loosely modeled on the real-life prince who became King Edward VII. Among the dwindling group of party guests, one of whom is the murderer, are an Amazon explorer, a stuttering poet, and a scheming actress. Half the fun of this romp lies in watching Bertie invent, then discard, one theory after another; for a while his suspicions even fall on the widowed hostess he wants to bed.