Tim Simpson, head of the Art Investment Fund at White's Bank, is back in hot water as he and his new wife Sue pursue a trail of murder, deception, and violent greed against a brooding background of Pre-Raphaelite artistic inheritance and illusion spun between London, Japan and a Hastings cliff-top. Sheep, goats and soap are the last things Tim believes he is seeking, yet the enduring symbolism of the Pre-Raphaelites dogs his every step.

Sheep are innocent creatures needing an attentive shepherd. Holman Hunt painted them in canvases intended as a stern warning to us all. Goats are credited with venal, cunning behaviour, but Holman Hunt's Scapegoat is one of the grim sacrificial images of our culture.

When Sir John Millais painted Bubbles he never thought that the Pears Soap Company would like it as an advert for their product. His image needed no laundering. Now the innocent, the venal and the laundering come together in a deadly trap, baited with a priceless work of art, and with its jaws set to close not only on Tim but on Sue as well.

Genre: Mystery