After taking a much needed sabbatical from work and his recent emotional entanglements, newly promoted Chief Inspector Rudolph Riley’s unannounced return to Fleetmouth and Hambleton Farm, is not universally welcomed by those closest to him… especially as his sudden appearance in the town is followed by a series of violent and apparently unrelated deaths.
Finding himself in a bit of a pickle, where everyone apparently wants him either dead, framed for a crime he didn’t commit or top of the list of suspects in a murder inquiry, and all whilst he’s trying to discover the identity of the person inside the police who has been selling confidential information to an international drug and diamond trafficker, known only as the Russian… he breaks the law to flush out the lawbreaker.
With suspicion mounting amongst his superiors that he must be guilty by association of some heinous crime and mistrusted by those who are determined to flaunt the rule of law, Riley attempts to keep one step ahead of the Russian, whilst his friend and colleague Andy Thomas is always seemingly one step behind and in danger of losing both his job and his pension, unless he can find answers to such pertinent questions as who smokes a brand of cigarette known as Black Russians and how did an anonymous tipoff lead to a stakeout going so disastrously wrong.
And if Eleanor Jenkins thought she’d finally got Riley out of her life, one night and two bottles of wine might just prove her wrong. But if Eleanor’s love for Riley is under the microscope, Dolly’s affection and loyalty has never been in doubt… but will the little parrot’s guile and new found vocabulary be enough to save Riley from himself and the constant premonition that he is about to meet a violent and macabre end?