Sprawled in front of the City goldsmith's open safe was the body of the establishment's proprietor, Rodger Newby, the Square Mile's Lord Mayor elect. The disappearance of a priceless punchbowl; the unburnt corner of a deed paper; a bronze statuette wiped clean; the clues accumulate for the bluff Sergeant Bragg and his aristocratic colleague, Constable Morton. Then the hunt for Newby's murderer takes a dramatic turn with a further fatal shooting...

Victorian The funeral undertaker denied all knowledge of the body in his van; it had clothes and boots on. The skull had been battered to a pulp. How is it that a murdered clerk comes to have a painting by Constable on his wall? Soon Detective Sergeant Joseph Bragg and his side-kick, Detective Constable James Morton, had on their hands two investigations, one of murder and one of fraud on a very large scale.

'High in readability...our atention is always held.' REGINALD HILL, TIMES LITERACY SUPPLEMENT. 'Rich pickings, tantalisingly displayed.' JOHN COLEMAN, SUNDAY TIMES. 'Meticulous research has borne the fruit of convincing plot, dialogue and gaslit atmosphere' MARCEL BERLINS, THE TIMES on Harrison's work. When Constable Morton takes his fiancée, Catherine, to choose an engagement ring, disaster strikes. As the couple inspect the biggest diamond Catherine has ever seen, the shop is raided, its proprietor, John Searle, is killed, the diamond is stolen and Catherine is abducted. As Detective Sergeant Bragg takes over the investigation it emerges that Searle was a dishonest philanderer, but who could have hated him enough to murder him? Meanwhile, Catherine faces terrible danger...