Unnatural Causes — P.D. James

Maurice Seton was a famous mystery writer--but no murder from his imagination could equal the ghastliness of his own death. When his grotesquely mutilated corpse was found in a drifting dinghy, ripples of horror spread among his bizarre friends: the cruel and cynical drama critic, the voluptuous strip tease artist, the dissolute young heir, the terrified woman waiting for her killer in a lonely house...

Now Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh and his extra-ordinary aunt must discover the shocking truth about Seton's past--before the perilous plot takes another murderous turn.