One morning, Tom Barnabas of the publishers Barnabas & Company left his house as usual, then simply vanished. Twenty years later, his cousin Paul, now head of the company, meets an untimely death. To solve Paul's murder, Campion has to go back...
Back at the Intelligence Department, Albert Campion takes an interest in Saltey, a remote and tight-lipped Thames estuary village. The place has a long history of smuggling - and holds a secret rich enough to make someone threaten, terrorize, murder...