The sixth novel in the Thane series Chief Detective Inspector Colin Thane and his second-in-command, D.I. Moss, regarded it as little more than unpleasant routine when they were asked to identify the body of a salmon poacher. He had apparently blown himself up while illegally dynamiting a river pool. But two surprises await first, the dead man had a companion, now missing; second, the case has a connection with an assassination bid on a visiting politician from Moscow. Time is short. Only "the man in the bottle" knows the truth, but first, as the hours tick by, the two detectives must interpret even these words for themselves.
