The novel is 'about the murder of a rich woman racehorse-owner in a Melbourne hotel on the eve of the Melbourne Cup, the narrator being a Sydney woman-journalist. ... [T]he poor little beautiful narrator has been jilted by Larry, who has married the rich woman, and now wants to be free. Another lovely popsy, in tow with a handsome blackmailer, cannot buy her I.O.U.s back from the rich woman. She it is who finds the body. Then the victim's jewels are discovered in the narrator's room; the inquiry ranges over the pub, out to the Melbourne Cup, and concludes with an all-night vigil, with the narrator as bait for the murderer, in a hotel room.'
Source: 'Reviewed Briefly', The Bulletin, 16 January 1952, p.2.
'Hotel detective Janos Kovacs travels from San Remo, where the Schlagerfestival will soon be held, to London. He wants to sell critical information to the crime reporter Barney Blair. Before Barney arrives, Kovacs is stabbed.'
Source: IMDB.