One of the trilogy of books forming the 'Law & Order' series penned by G. F. Newman, this particular story was first published in 1977 and then reprinted in Sphere paperbacks in 1978. The other two books in the trilogy are 'A Villain's Tale' and 'A Prisoner's Tale'. The cover illustration shows Derek Martin as Detective Inspector Fred Pyall from the BBC TV production of Law and Order (directed by Leslie Blair, produced by Tony Garnett), where each of the four episodes concentrated on one aspect of the criminal justice system. The episode filmed of the Detective's Tale in particular outraged the Prison Officers Association and the police. Story: There's more to Law and Order than you'll ever read in the papers... A big blag was on the way. Informers fed the news to CID. The villain setting it up was due for a nicking - well overdue, in fact. And detective Inspector Fred Pyall of the Flying Squad was going to pull every stroke, straight or bent, that he knew to make sure this particular blagger was bang to rights...