[Masters and Green 27] • Bitter Water

Hugh Carlyle is a wealthy patron of the arts. He and his wife, Margot, are close personal friends of George and Wanda Masters, to whom they give tickets to the opening-night performance of a new farce called Round the Barley in which Carlyle has invested. Immediately after the show, the young leading actress Carla Saunders falls and injures her leg and is replaced by an understudy. The success of the play as a whole is not marred by her accident, and a few days later the wheelchair-bound industrialist hosts a poolside party to celebrate. Carlyle's guests include members of the cast and crew as well as his neighbors and co-workers. Sometime during the evening Carla Sanders is pushed into the water. Within hours she comes down with a rare disease that leaves her dead. It soon becomes clear that her death is no accident. Now George Masters must put aside his personal feelings while he and Bill Green investigate the insidious murder with the support of their well-trained team of investigators.