NAME: OBOSOH IKERE OSE

MATRIC NUMBER: RUN/ENG/20/9071

COURSE CODE: ENG 256

ASSIGNMENT: WRITE OUT 5 DRAMA AND 5 NOVELS YEAR OF PUBLICATION, AUTHOR AND
SUMMARY/SYNOPSIS OF THE NOVELS AND DRAMAS.

5 AFRICAN NOVELS

1. Arrow of the God’s by Chinua Achebe ( 1964)

2. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi Wathiongo (1967)

3. Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton (1948)

4. A Dry White Season by Andre Brink (1979)

5. Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe (1987)

1. SUMMARY OF ARROW OF gods BY CHINUA ACHEBE (1964)

Arrow of gods is the third novel in Nigeria author Chinua Achebe’s African Trilogy and was published in
1964. The novel is set in 1920s colonial Nigeria and centers around Ezeulu, the chief priest of six Igbo
villages in Umuaro who worship the god Ulu. Arrow of God is set in rural Nigeria during the 1920s in a
southern part of the country where the igbo people reside.

The novel begins with a war between two neighbouring regions of rural igbo land umuaro and Okperi.
Though we do know the boundaries of Okperi we don’t know that Umuaro is made up of such villages.
The six villages are linked by the worship of common god, ulu. The people of Umuaro starts a war with
Okperi over the land they want to claim. They are encouraged to start the war by a wealthy man named
Nwaka, who challenges Ulu. The war is launched against the advice of Ulu’s chief priest of Ezeulu. The
colonial administration steps in to stop the war and rules in favor of Okperi after discussing the matter
with Ezeulu, the one man in Umuaro who tells the truth. Captain Winterbottom a British colonial official
who commands the local station, breaks and burns all the guns in Umuaro, becoming a legend.
Meanwhile the people of Umuaro become angry with Ezeulu because he didn’t take their side. Five
years later, life in Umuaro has returned to normal sort of Christians missionaries have made major
inroads into society, establishing converts and trying to show that the old gods are ineffective. Ezeulu is
sending his son Oduche to church, to be his eyes and ears, and to learn the ways of the white man
Animosity between Ezeulu and Nwaka and their respective villages has grown to the point called kill and
take the head. In other words things have gotten to the point where men in the two villages try to kill
each other using poison. Nwaka is fortified and strengthen by his relationship with Ezidemili and the
high priest of God to Ulu,through idemili is a lesser God in comparison to Ulu the competition between
the two priests is dividing Umuaro and creating suspicion among brothers.
 The people say it is a judgement against Ezeulu. His God, ulu, has spoken Ezeulu has become stubborn
and proud and the God has not sided with his priest against the people. But it was a bad timr to
humiliate the priest. It allowed the people to take ‘liberties’ that year, many of the yams were
harvested in the name of Christian god and the crops reaped afterwards were also reaped in the
Christian god. As Arrow of God comes to a close, it seems that worship of the Christian god had
replaced that of Ulu.

2. A GRAIN OF WHEAT BY NGUGI WATHIONGO (1967)

A Grain of Wheat tells a story of indigenous Kenyans resistance to British colonial control. The novel
Centers on a handful of individuals and their motivations for participating in the independence
movement or Mau Mau. When the British colonizers come to Kenya, they strengthen their hold on the
territory by building a great railroad. Waiyaki and other warrior leaders took up arms against this
imposition, but they were defeated. Most Kenyans gradually learn to make accommodations with the
new regime, though the seeds of revolution spread underground in “the Movement,” known to the
British as Mau Mau.

Among the younger generation are Gikonyo, a well-known carpenter in the village of Thabai, and
Mumbi, his wife and one of the most beautiful women in the area. They listen as one of their peers,
Kihika, speaks before a large crowd and encourages guerrilla warfare against the British. Mugo also
listens, but, unlike Gikonyo and Mumbi, he hates what Kihika says. Mugo thinks native Kenyans have no
chance of successfully opposing the British, and he decides to do his job quietly and succeed in the new
order of things. Karanja, who unsuccessfully sought the hand of Mumbi, feels even more strongly that
the best policy is to accept the British as invincible.

Before long, Kihika disappears into the forest with many other young men who arm themselves. A year
later, their most successful raid is the capture of the Mahee police post; this infuriates the British. They
declare a state of emergency and imprison many of the young men of Thabai, including Gikonyo. Even
Mugo is arrested for intervening when a woman is being beaten. Despite the efforts by the British to
quell the Kenyan resistance, the violence continues, and District Officer Thomas Robson is assassinated.

Mugo is taken to Rira camp, where John Thompson is the warden. Though Mugo respects the British, in
these circumstances he feels unjustly accused and refuses to cooperate. He begins to get a reputation
among the other detainees as an inspiration to courage. Mugo does nothing to justify their hopes, but
he does feel vague and grandiose religious impulses and begins to see himself as a possible messiah for
his people. Finally, there is an uprising in which Mugo plays no part, and twenty-one prisoners are killed.
This episode places a blot on Thompson’s career, the British believing he overreacted; nevertheless, he
is named as Robson’s replacement as district officer.
Before long, Mugo is released. After his return to the village, he receives an unexpected—and
unwelcome—visit from Kihika, a hunted man. Kihika reveals that he, disguised as an old man, killed
Robson, the district officer. This news terrifies Mugo. Oblivious to Mugo’s cowardice, Kihika encourages
him to lead an underground movement in the village and asks him to think about it and to meet him the
next evening. Mugo resents the ethical choice that Kihika thrusts upon him. He decides to betray him
and secretly tells Thompson where Kihika will be the next night. The soldiers arrest Kihika and murder
him.

Gikonyo is moved from one detention camp to another—seven in all—and finally, after six years, has
most of his revolutionary zeal drained from him. He thinks only of Mumbi. He signs a confession and is
released. There are rumors that freedom is coming to the country. When Gikonyo returns to the village,
however, he receives two unwelcome surprises. The first is that Karanja, whom he has never respected,
has risen from leader of the homeguards (who report to the British) to village chief. The second is that
his wife, Mumbi, gave birth to a son in his absence, and the father is Karanja. Gikonyo becomes
embittered and disillusioned.

Kenya regains its independence (uhuru) on December 12, 1963. Thabai, like the other towns, celebrates
with a large rally that all villagers attend. Warui, Wambui, General R., and Lieutenant Koina, who worked
in the Movement for many years, are planning to use the occasion to unmask Kihika’s betrayer. All their
suspicions fall upon Karanja, who is the most notorious collaborator in the village. When independence
approaches, Karanja resigns as chief and goes to work in the library. He also serves, however, as a
messenger for John Thompson, his mistress, and his wife.

Their plan is to have Mugo, whose reputation as a hero has by now grown by leaps and bounds, present
a speech that will climax with the naming of Karanja. Mugo, burdened with guilt, refuses and asks to be
left alone. Mumbi tries to change his mind, so he tells her the truth. She warns Karanja not to attend the
rally, but he ignores her advice. Then the people dispatch a delegation that drags Mugo into their midst,
where they await his triumphant speech. They call him “Kihika-born-again.” Instead, he stands before
them all and reveals himself as the traitor.

Mugo’s aged aunt dies, and he is left totally alone in the world. Wambui, General R., and Lieutenant
Koina visit him, confirm his guilt, and execute him. Karanja, who placed all his hopes on the British,
recognizes how dangerous his situation is when Thompson leaves the country. Karanja flees, but he
knows he has nowhere to go. Warui and Wambui, who were with the Movement for such a long time,
now feel empty, wondering whether things have improved or whether they have simply exchanged one
corrupt government for another. Gikonyo and Mumbi, on the other hand, reconcile and look forward to
the future.
3. CRY,THE BELOVED COUNTRY BY ALAN PATON (1948)

It tells the story of a father’s journey from rural South Africa to and through the city of Johannesburg in
search of his son. The reader cannot help but feel deeply for the central character, a Zulu pastor,
Stephen kamalo, and the tortuous discoveries he makes in Johannesburg. In the remote village of
Ndotsheni, in the Natal province of eastern South Africa, the Reverend Stephen Kumalo receives a letter
from a fellow minister summoning him to Johannesburg, a city in South Africa. He is needed there, the
letter says, to help his sister, Gertrude, who the letter says has fallen ill. Kumalo undertakes the difficult
and expensive journey to the city in the hopes of aiding Gertrude and of finding his son, Absalom, who
traveled to Johannesburg from Ndotsheni and never returned. In Johannesburg, Kumalo is warmly
welcomed by Msimangu, the priest who sent him the letter, and given comfortable lodging by Mrs.
Lithebe, a Christian woman who feels that helping others is her duty. Kumalo visits Gertrude, who is now
a prostitute and liquor-seller, and persuades her to come back to Ndotsheni with her young son.

A more more difficult quest follows when Kumalo and Msimangu begin searching the labyrinthine
metropolis of Johannesburg for Absalom. They visit Kumalo’s brother, John, who has become a
successful businessman and politician, and he directs them to the factory where his son and Absalom
once worked together. One clue leads to another, and as Kumalo travels from place to place, he begins
to see the gaping racial and economic divisions that are threatening to split his country. Eventually,
Kumalo discovers that his son has spent time in a reformatory and that he has gotten a girl pregnant.

Meanwhile, the newspapers announce that Arthur Jarvis, a prominent white crusader for racial
justice, has been murdered in his home by a gang of burglars. Kumalo and Msimangu learn that the
police are looking for Absalom, and Kumalo’s worst suspicions are confirmed when Absalom is arrested
for Jarvis’s murder. Absalom has confessed to the crime, but he claims that two others, including John
Kumalo’s son, Matthew, aided him and that he did not intend to murder Jarvis. With the help of friends,
Kumalo obtains a lawyer for Absalom and attempts to understand what his son has become. John,
however, makes arrangements for his own son’s defense, even though this split will worsen Absalom’s
case. When Kumalo tells Absalom’s pregnant girlfriend what has happened, she is saddened by the
news, but she joyfully agrees to his proposal that she marry his son and return to Ndotsheni as Kumalo’s
daughter-in-law. On the evening before his son’s execution, Kumalo goes into the mountains to await
the appointed time in solitude. On the way, he encounters Jarvis, and the two men speak of the village,
of lost sons, and of Jarvis’s bright young grandson, whose innocence and honesty have impressed both
men. When Kumalo is alone, he weeps for his son’s death and clasps his hands in prayer as dawn breaks
over the valley.

4. A DRY WHITE SEASON BY ANDRE BRINK (1979)

The novel begins as the narrator gives some background to the figure Ben du Toit. He claims that he has
assembled much of the knowledge of du Toit’s life from various legal documents, notes, and papers that
Ben left behind after his death. As the book progresses, the narrator learns more about Ben and realizes
that his path to activism began in a state of political apathy and disillusionment with corruption in the
South African government. In recovering as objectively as possible the story of Ben’s life, the narrator
hopes to do him some justice.

Several years before his death, Ben lived a rather idyllic life in South Africa. His white privilege makes it
easy to ignore many of the problems in South African society, which are usually tied to the
disenfranchisement of black people. Though Ben knows little about South African history or the inner
workings of its government, he gains exposure to these subjects when a janitor at his school, Gordon
Ngubene, asks him to help him trace the cause of death of his son, Jonathan. Shortly after the request,
Gordon is mysteriously killed. Deciding to help Gordon even in death, Ben becomes actively involved in
the investigation, knowing that his family will ostracize him for doing so. He befriends a black taxi driver
and radical activist, Stanley, as well as a British journalist on a remote assignment, Melanie.

Ben travels to the black settlement of Soweto and begins to understand the extent of the damage
and excessive control for which the Secret Police are responsible. As he comes into contact with many
black individuals, his eyes begin to open and he gets better at checking his privilege. Ben’s investigation
progresses well in Soweto, and he obtains a few possible leads that suggest the Secret Police has been
committing strings of murders. The Secret Police begin to worry about the investigation, naming Ben an
outlaw. In a fascist, Apartheid South African state, this label is virtually a death sentence. He is arrested
and whipped around the time of the infamous Soweto Revolt. When he seeks the help of attorneys,
mysteriously, none are willing to work with him. The few pieces of information he obtains about
Jonathan’s death are contradictory: some imply foul play, while some stress that he died of natural
causes.

Gordon lucks out when one of Jonathan’s former ex-prisoners signs an affidavit explaining the terrible
conditions they were subjected to in prison. These included being forced to live naked, enduring
frequent beatings. Gordon convinces a nurse to corroborate the prisoner’s claims; just as this victory
seems too good to be true, he is whisked off by the Secret Police, and the affidavits go missing. As Ben’s
obsession with the case grows, it negatively affects his relationship with his wife, Susan. When she can
no longer bear the constant investigative work and the cops following her around, she ends the
marriage. Ben persists, finding that Jonathan was killed as a direct result of his activism. The revelation
inspires Ben to become an activist to call out the injustices of South Africa. Ironically, Ben meets the
same fate as Jonathan, demonstrating the inescapability of the oppressive regime. A Dry White Season
is an excoriating attack on South Africa’s corrupt and unjust political processes and its routine violations
of human rights norms in the mid- to late 1900s.

5. ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH BY CHINUA ACHEBE (1987)

The novel flashes back in time slightly to introduce us to the women in these men’s lives. Ikem’s
pregnant girlfriend, Elewa, is from the working classes. Uneducated, she works in a store. Chris’s fiancée
is the well-educated Beatrice, a woman who was childhood friends with Ikem and works as a state
administrator for Sam. Because she has connections to the government, the educated media classes,
and also the common people, Beatrice sees the situation from a much clearer vantage point than either
Chris or Ikem. She tells them that their reactions to Sam aren’t productive.

Back in the present, Sam becomes convinced that Ikem is behind the “rebellion” being fomented by the
Abazon representatives. He orders Chris to fire Ikem from the Gazette. Although Chris refuses to obey,
Ikem is still removed from the position. After he gives a fiery speech criticizing the dictatorship to
university students, Ikem is arrested and killed by Sam’s secret police. This extrajudicial murder jolts
Chris into the awareness that Sam has become a monster. Chris contacts the international media,
revealing the reality of the regime to them, and goes into hiding with the help of some sympathizers,
including Emmanuel, a student who was deeply inspired by Ikem. Chris’s goal is to escape the capital city
and to travel to Abazon with Emmanuel by bus. Chris’s defection infuriates Sam, and he orders a nation-
wide manhunt for both Chris and anyone who helps Chris or withholds information about him. Because
Chris takes a bus to Abazon, he is forced to reconnect with the people and land around him. At the same
time, Emmanuel meets another student, Adamma, and forms a romantic connection with her. Suddenly,
the bus is overtaken by a mob of drunken revelers. Chris learns that these people are celebrating the
overthrow and assassination of Sam – his dictatorship has just been toppled in yet another coup. The
streets are full of both joyful festivity and scary chaos, and after Chris, Emmanuel, and Adamma are
separated, Chris notices Adamma being kidnapped by a soldier who is about to rape her. Chris runs to
intervene and the soldier shoots and kills him. After finding out about her fiancé’s death, Beatrice holds
a naming ceremony for Ikem and Elewa’s newborn daughter. Usually, the naming is performed by a
man, but Beatrice is symbolically trying to break the cycle. She names the baby Amaechina, a male name
that means “may the path never close.”

5 AFRICAN DRAMA

1 . Lion and the jewel by Wole Soyinka ( 1962)

2 . OUR HUSBAND HAS GONE MAD AGAIN BY OLA ROTIMI (1999)

3 . Death and the Kings horse men by Wole Soyinka ( 1975)

4 . My children ! My Africa! By Althol Fugard – (1990)

5 . JUST A MATTER OF TIME BY LARHONDA SIMMONS IN (1989)

1 . LION AND THE JEWEL BY WOLE SOYINKA (1962)

The play chronicles how Baroka, the lion, fights with the modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi,
the titular Jewel. Lakunle is portrayed as the civilized antithesis of Baroka and unilaterally attempts to
modernize his community and change its social conventions for no reason other than the fact that he
can.

The play’s three main characters are Sidi, Lakunle and Baroka. Sidi is a young, beautiful village girl who is
known as the “village belle.” She is the “jewel” referenced in the play’s title. Sidi is pursued as a
marriage prospect by the other two main characters, Lakunle and Baroka. Lakunle is a schoolmaster
who, though also young, dresses and acts like an “old soul.” Lakunle has adopted the dress and speech
patterns of Western countries, and believes that the only way for their village of Ilujinle to progress is to
modernize, like Lagos and other “forward-thinking” places. Lakunle is considered the village idiot
because of his fancy words and the way he carries himself. Though Lakunle has asked Sidi to marry him,
she has refused him once already. Baroka is known as the Bale of Ilujinle, the village chief, and is the
“lion” of the play’s title. Baroka is old and wise, though a womanizer and untrustworthy. Lakunle
describes him as a “fox,” a sneaky individual who uses cunning to bring about a desired end. Baroka’s
cunning is pitted against Lakunle’s modernized wooing to see what Sidi will choose: a modern life as a
“new woman” or a traditional role as the Bale’s head wife. Introduces Sidi as the beautiful village belle.
Lakunle rushes to her side one morning and explains to a bewildered and annoyed Sidi why she should
act more like the “new women” in Lagos, meaning that she should shrug off her traditional roles and
become modernized. Sidi dismisses Lakunle’s taunts and his entreaties for marriage, reminding him that
he is the village idiot and that he will not pay the bride-price she has asked. Lakunle refuses to pay the
bride-price because he views this marriage practice as primitive. The two are soon interrupted by
villagers who have come to bring Sidi the news that the foreigner has returned to Ilujinle. The foreigner
is a drunkard from Lagos who took pictures of Sidi and swore to make her famous. He has returned with
a magazine containing her pictures. The villagers reenact the foreigner’s previous arrival with song and
dance, and the Bale himself appears and takes part. When the villagers rush off to find the foreigner, the
Bale takes out the magazine of Sidi’s pictures and comments that it has been a while since he has taken
a wife.

Saidku the Bale’s head wife. Sadiku tells Sidi that the Bale wants to marry her and that she should
accept. Sidi dismisses the proposal, as she does not want to become yet another wife to the Bale. She
also makes fun of the Bale’s age. Lakunle then warns Sidi of the Bale’s trickery and cunning by relating a
tale of how Baroka bribed railroad employees so that the railroad—the one thing that might have
modernized Ilujinle—would not ruin the Bale’s traditional way of living. Sadiku later tells Baroka of Sidi’s
refusal, and he informs Sadiku that he is impotent. The third and final act, “Night,” finds Sidi attempting
to taunt the Bale for his impotence by visiting his house and engaging him in a game of wits through
words. It turns out that the Bale is just as cunning as Sidi has been warned, and Sidi finds herself
outmatched. The Bale offers Sidi a chance to show her beauty to even more people, something she
cannot refuse. She realizes he is old but wise, and the two make love. Sidi later discovers that the Bale
has tricked her. He is not impotent after all. Despite this betrayal, Sidi decides to marry the Bale, not
Lakunle, as the Bale is more experienced in life and love. Though the play offers many comical plot
twists, and is rife with laughable characters and actions, the central themes in the play address such
weighty matters as tradition versus modernity, masculinity versus femininity, the playfulness of
language, and age versus youth. The villagers of Ilujinle must deal with modernization, which might
mean losing their way of life and living without character. The Bale thinks there is nothing worse than
modernizing and losing identity by becoming like everyone else. Lakunle thinks there is nothing worse
than being left behind when the rest of the world is progressing. Sidi wants to decide what is best for
herself, though she is more inclined to traditionalism.

2 . DEATH AND THE KINGS HORSE MEN BY WOLE SOYINKA (1975)

Death and the King's Horseman play tells the story of Elesin, the king's horseman, who is expected to
commit ritual suicide following the death of the king, but who is distracted from his duty. The story is
based on a historical event.

The play begins just after the death of the Yoruba king. His horseman, Elesin Oba, prepares to commit
suicide to follow his king to the afterlife. The act is in accordance with a Yoruba myth that holds that the
world can only move forward when each newly deceased king and his men join the afterlife. As Elesin
boldly prepares to die, the ritual’s Praise-Singer begins to doubt that the horseman will actually follow
through with his suicide. Elesin assures him that he is satisfied with this way of completing his life. As a
group of women prepares his ceremonial outfit, Elesin asks their leader, Iyaloja, to set him up with a
beautiful woman with whom he hopes to have sex before his death. The woman is married to Iyaloja’s
son, so Iyaloja hesitates at first to fulfill his wish. She ultimately agrees that it is fair given the extent of
Elesin’s sacrifice. The plot shifts to a scene in the British colony. Simon and Jane Pilkings are getting
ready for a masquerade dance and enjoying each other’s company, when police officer Amusa appears
to warn Simon about Elesin’s plan to commit suicide. Simon ponders the consequences of preventing
such a ritual, reaching the conclusion that he must stop it. He tells Amusa to send officers to arrest
Elesin on his behalf; since he hopes to meet the prince, he cannot turn down the masquerade. Amusa
rushes to the market to prevent the ritual but is fended off by the market women. The ritual begins, and
Elesin descends into a trance.

Learning that the ritual has not been prevented, Simon leaves the masquerade in a panic to
stop it himself. Elesin’s son, Olunde, appears and strikes up a conversation with Jane. He
relates that he would not have been able to go to medical school in England without the
financial aid of the Pilkings family, but that his decision to accept the aid caused his father to
renounce him. Having heard that the Yoruba king had died, Olunde has returned to Nigeria to
reconnect with his father and attend the ritual. Drums begin to resound in the distance, and
Olunde thinks that the ritual is over and his father has committed suicide. Then, news
emerges that Simon and the police stopped the ritual before it culminated. Elesin is led in,
enraged and in handcuffs. Olunde rebukes his father for failing to fulfill the ritual. Iyaloja finds
Elesin in jail and picks on him for lacking the will to finish the ritual and enter the afterlife
before the Englishmen intervened. Elesin does not dispute his own failure, but claims that he
would have finished the ritual if not for Simon’s intervention. Iyaloja reveals that the king’s
people had to find someone else to die in his place to prevent the universe from collapsing.
Some men bring in Olunde’s body swaddled in a large cloth. Iyaloja explains that Olunde
volunteered to kill himself to bring dignity to his father. Devastated, Elesin chokes himself to
death with his own chains before anyone can unlock his cage and stop him.

3 . MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! BY ALTHOL FUGARD (1990)

My Children! My Africa! tells the story of the friendship of two young people, Isabel Dyson, a privileged
white girl, and Thami Mbikwana. A highly intelligent township youth. Their meeting occurs when a
teacher, Mr M, organises an inter-schools debate between their schools. In a classroom in a small
Eastern Cape Karoo town in South Africa in 1984, Mr. M, an idealistic teacher, seeks to provide a future
for his gifted student Thami by forming a debate team with Isabel, a spirited student from the local
white school.
4 . OUR HUSBAND HS GONE MAD AGAIN BY OLA ROTIMI (1999)

Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again is a 1977 comedy written by Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi. It
follows the story of the vain major-turned-politician Lejoka Brown, who has several wives. He married
his first wife when he was a young soldier fighting in the Congo. His second wife, Rashida, was actually
the wife of his elder brother who passed away and so Rashida married Lejoka Brown, as per tradition.
He married his third wife, Sikira, in order to get more votes, as Sikira's mother was the president of the
National Union of Nigerian Market Women. His fourth wife, however, is nothing like the rest of the
them.Lizzy is an independent and opinionated woman with a medical degree, who decides to come back
home from America. Lejoka Brown goes to pick her up from the airport, however Lizzy's plane arrives
early and she goes to Lejoka Brown's house on her own. She gets comfortable and proceeds to be
affectionate, playful and open with her husband, much to the surprise of Lejoka Brown's other wives. At
first, he is a bit shocked at her behavior and her "Western" mentality, but soon realizes that he very
much enjoys Lizzy's presence. In the end, Lizzy manages to chase the other wives away and becomes
Lejoka Brown's only wife.

5 . JUST A MATTER OF TIME BY LARHONDA SIMMONS IN (1989)

Alice Morely-Johnson is an old lady worth several million dollars. She had been a popular pianist, and
now has retired to live in a penthouse with a chauffeur named Bromhead, who serves her impeccably.
Her financial matters are handled by a banker named Chris Patterson, who does because he knows that
Miss Morely-Johnson is fond of him and gives him costly gifts. When Miss Morely-Johnson’s companion-
help goes away, she asks Patterson to search for one. Patterson falls for an applicant named Sheila, and
Miss Morely-Johnson seems to like her because allegedly Sheila had played on stage with her
father.Patterson is excited about Sheila getting the job because he can meet her. What Patterson does
not know is that Sheila has been fixed beforehand by Bromhead, who plans to execute the perfect crime
of killing Miss Morely-Johnson and making it appear like an accident. That way, her insurance money
goes to a nephew of hers, Harry, who is in love with Sheila as well. The plan was that, after Morely-
Johnson's death, they would divide the money in three equal parts and move on. The plan begins to go
awry, though, when the detective on duty in the penthouse senses something fishy about Sheila
dressing up as someone else when leaving the flat.