When Melrose Plant finds the very dead body of faithless, greedy Simon Lean, there's no shortage of suspects to hand. And Richard Jury's enquiries stir up a hornet's nest of suspicion and mutual distrust in the sleepy surroundings of Watermeadows, the stately home where Simon met his end.
But the truth lies somewhere between the quiet of the countryside and the sleazier environs of the Fiver Bells and Bladebone in London's Limehouse, where another murder has just been committed. And this time the victim was the brassy, likeable Sadie Driver - or was it? Even her own brother can't say with any certainty. The regulars of the Five Bells are eager to help, but the killer seems always to be one fatal step ahead of Jury in the chase . . .
