G'day Peter T (& Bruce O),

A recent (early 1990s) book on Marlowe (since mysteriously gone missing from ... or amongst ... my 3,000 odd books) shows the the "lady" was the widow of a senior government official (~Minister for the Navy) and the house appears to have been (ironically) what we would now call an espionage "safe house".

Marlowe's killers were professional spies and they claim he attacked them with a knife and they, uninjured, grappled for the knife and inadvertently stabbed him directly to the brain, via the eye socket. Of course, that doesn't look at all like a professional contract ... does it?

Regards,

Bob Bolton