Jonathan Mansel, one of Dornford Yates' most popular characters, heads a small private organisation dedicated to the detection of serious crime 'by methods sadly unavailable to the regular police'. An aristocratic member of his team is murdered and the avengers set out in pursuit of the killer, in a tale of 'violence and a measure of sublimated sex'. Caricatured villains, a page-turning plot and some good jokes - in short, classic Yates.