After dark, the doors and windows are locked, the lights go out, and someone starts murdering the guests. Is the murderer one of the twelve or someone else? Each guest must decide whether he or she should form a bond with any of the other guests, none of whom appear to be a murderer. Those guests, chosen specifically by the murderer, include a doctor, a judge, a private detective, a kindergarten teacher, a firefighter, a mystery author, a librarian, a taxidermist, a real estate agent, an insurance agent, a funeral director, and a computer programmer. Is the murderer one of them, the butler, or the owner, who is blind and confined to a wheelchair? Or did someone else find a way to sneak into the inn?

    So how do we define the city as it evolves in the 21st century? Drawing examples from across the globe, Deyan Sudjic decodes the underlying forces that shape our cities, such as resources and land, to the ideas that shape conscious elements of design, whether of buildings or of space. Erudite and entertaining, he considers the differences between capital cities and the rest to understand why it is that we often feel more comfortable in our identities as Londoners, Muscovites, or Mumbaikars than in our national identities.