It's 1937. Ned Machray has been a policeman for only a few weeks when he finds his first murder. But five nosey housewives think he is too much of a tenderfoot to solve the crime on his own. These women are sure that one of them is guilty,A" Ned explains to his superior. But they can't agree which one.A" His investigation takes him into the city's slums, illegal dogfights and a back street clinic for particular diseases. He gets to the bottom of gossip and cracks a murder that has baffled Scotland Yard, Whitehall and the local CID. A Mystery of Cross Women is a prelude to the author's Timberdick Mysteries.