The point of view of the book is the familiar standby of detective fiction, omniscient narrative with frequent use of dialogue. This basic pattern is varied with letters, floor plans, newspaper clippings, footnotes, literary quotations, and epigraphs. A coroner's inquest is transcribed verbatim, and a vital piece of information is included in a long letter written in French. It has been objected that in the early novels Lord Peter spends more time speculating about the evidence than in unearthing it, but this is true of all detective fiction, and fans of puzzle mysteries are unlikely to mind. There is a rewarding puzzle here and an unobtrusive use of coincidence.