Of all the luxuries of which Hartley Parrish's sudden rise to wealth gave him possession, Bude, his butler, was the acquisition in which he took the greatest delight and pride. Bude was a large and comfortable- looking person, triple-chinned like an archdeacon, bald-headed except for a respectable and saving edging of dark down, clean-shaven, benign of countenance, with a bold nose which to the psychologist bespoke both ambition and inborn cleverness. He had a thin, tight mouth which in itself alone was a symbol of discreet reticence, the hall-mark of the trusted family retainer. Bude had spent his life in the service of the English aristocracy. The Earl of Tipperary, Major-General Lord Bannister, the Dowager Marchioness of Wiltshire, and Sir Herbert Marcobrunner, Bart., had in turn watched his gradual progress from pantry-boy to butler. Bude was a man whose maxim had been the French saying, Je prends mon bien o je le trouve.

バレンタイン・ウィリアムズの筆致は、富を手にしたパリッシュと完璧な執事ビュードの対比を通じ、英国社会の虚飾を鮮やかに描き出します。洗練された執事という「静かな鏡」に映し出されることで、野心の裏に潜む人間の危うさが浮き彫りになる構成は、まさに心理ミステリの真骨頂と言えるでしょう。 本作の核心は、タイトルの通り人間の内面に潜む「臆病な本性」にあります。社会的な成功の裏に隠された、目を背けたくなるような本質的な弱さが、冷徹な視線で暴かれていく過程は圧巻です。格調高い文体で綴られる極上の心理戦は、読者の知的好奇心を激しく揺さぶり、魂の深淵へと誘う魅力に満ちています。