The Evil of the Day is a novel by Thomas Sterling, published in 1955. The book is patterned after Ben Jonson's Elizabethan comedy Volpone, and was later adapted for the stage by playwright Frederick Knott under the title of Mr. Fox of Venice. Together, these three works formed the basis of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1967 film The Honey Pot.
The wealthy and wily Cecil Fox summons three old faces from his past to his villa in Venice to unwittingly take part in an elaborate charade inspired by Elizabethan literature. But when one of his guests is murdered in the night, Fox's production abruptly switches genres from comedy to full-blown murder mystery.