"You shouldn't be here. It's too late...." Heard over the phone, these were the last recorded words of successful celebrity-divorce lawyer Richard Pryce, found bludgeoned to death with an expensive bottle of wine. Odd, considering he didn't drink. And why did the killer paint a three-digit number on the wall? Most importantly, which of the man's many, many enemies did the deed? Baffled, the police are forced to bring in private investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz himself. But as Hawthorne takes on his second case (after The Word Is Murder) with characteristic relish, it becomes clear that he too has things to hide, and that these secrets must be exposed—even at the risk of death.