A freelance operative for Britain's MI5, Harry Fielding is given the task of cleaning up the crime scene where a murder committed by a high-ranking cabinet minister and ensuring that the guilty man does not become a suspect in the killing. Original.

Harry Fielding has had enough of the low life. He's through with being an understrapper for MI5. It's time to make a new start. He'll spend more time with his widowed father, Cecil. He'll look into that job he's heard about-a concierge/handyman for a small hotel. But Harry's fishing holiday with his father is interrupted by his old friend Alfie, the crooked policeman. Alfie is in trouble. Actually, Alfie is trouble, but Harry is not one to abandon a friend, especially since Alfie's wife, Ruth-all long fingers and perfect belly-is also anxious to see him again. As it turns out, Alfie has been suspended from the police force but has lined up a private investigation job that calls for Harry's expertise. But once on the case, Harry begins to wonder just what he is expected to do.

Philip Davison’s taut, action-packed, emotionally complex series follows the story of a crooked man who desperately wants to go straight. On the second green of a Long Island golf course there are three golf balls and a corpse with a bullet hole in its forehead. The call goes out for Harry Fielding to come in from the cold. With a new suit and a new partner, Harry is back where he least wants to be: playing the deadly games of MI5. It doesn’t help that his apprentice, Johnny Weeks, is a troublemaker with the measured diffidence of a French waiter and the volatility of a pit-bull terrier. Harry goes back to the work he hates but does so well, but as his instructions come in and the purpose of his job doesn’t get any clearer, Harry begins to wonder if he has been set up—and for what purpose.

Harry Fielding has been hiding out in Spain, but now Clements, his controller, is calling him home. With a heavy heart Harry takes up a dubious post as Clements' personal assistant. He begins to think like a spy again. Then news comes that Johnny Weeks has surfaced and is looking for revenge. Against Harry's better judgement they join forces—and the fearless Johnny becomes both a friend and a catalyst for Harry's rebellion. As he turns against the wheels of the MI5 machine, and begins to employ the techniques he has always abhorred, life for Harry Fielding—the misfit with integrity—becomes a deadly business indeed.