When Detective Inspector Bill Reid is found murdered, Chief Inspector Alan Banks, suspecting police corruption, handles the investigation with the utmost discretion until he discovers that Reid's murder is linked to the disappearance of a young English girl six years earlier.

"A disgraced college lecturer is found murdered on a disused railway line near his home. He has 5,000 euros in his pocket, yet in the four years since his dismissal has been living a poverty-stricken and hermit-like existence. There are many suspects, mostly at the college where he used to teach, but Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, much to the chagrin of his boss, soon becomes fixated on Lady Veronica Chalmers, who appears to have links with...