Rope

At precisely 6.45pm young Ronald Kentley was strangled with a rope by two fellow undergraduates, who subsequently deposited his body in a chest. Later that same evening his friends and family, including the deceased's father, are invited round to a tea party. As the evening progresses the perpetrators increasingly test their ingenuity and morality to the limit; but will any of their guests realise their dark secret? Based on a real case, Patrick Hamilton's dark classic presents a chilling anatomy of an apparently motiveless murder, and a brilliant snapshot of a jazz-age generation wallowing in privilege, booze, parties, a shallow obsession with fashion and films, and a desperate inner emptiness.