Meet Jim Danzig, enquiry agent of Castletown, who is employed on what seems a routine security job, looking after a successful racehorse for a few days before it goes to stud. However what appears to be a comfortable and well-paid job blows up in Danzig’s face when he is knocked on the head and the horse is stolen. Matters get worse, as a couple of murders follow. Meanwhile Danzig is warned off the case and beaten up. Who is the man responsible for the kidnap and ransom demands, who calls himself by the code name ‘the Tetrarch’? And is he the murderer?
The first in a series of murder mysteries involving Danzig and his assistant Judith Hare, played out against the background of an English country town, and the picturesque if slightly sinister surroundings of local beauty spot Sandford Heath.