Morgan Campbell-Pye is an advertising executive and describes himself as amoral, dispassionate, egocentric and something of a socialite. But murder? Even he doubted he was capable of that - until he joined the Thursday Club. Campbell-Pye is one of eight buisnessmen invited to join a tontine in which they all put money into a communal pot for investment. But if any of the members should die, his share is to stay in the portfolio. They each agree to invest thirty thousand dollars, the tontine running for fifteen years. But when one of the members commits suicide, Campbell-Pye fantasises about the possiblity of all the others dying, leaving him the pot. And also begins his muderous campaign. The Wastings is a study of obsession and delusion, in which the act of homicide becomes more than a means to an end, it becomes the end in itself.