Smith's basic technique is one of contrast: the serious Topper and his conventional lifestyle against the flippant and reckless Kerbys, who (in life and in death) thumb their noses at the proprieties. As in most of Smith's novels, the attack on respectability involves a courtroom scene, where the forces of conformity and respectability are overrun by the absurdity of the situation. The intrusion of magic (in this novel the Kerby ghosts, and their ethereal companions Colonel Scott, Mrs. Hart, and their dog Oscar) makes a shambles of law and order and creates an opportunity for the sexual high jinks that are a major part of Smith's work. The dialogue is farcical, as the characters talk at cross-purposes, and confusion reigns. The novel is framed by the Kerby death car, which Topper buys at the beginning of the novel and almost loses his life in as a passenger at...