The King & the Tetrarch

Meet Jim Danzig, enquiry agent of Castletown, who is employed on what seems a routine security job: looking after a successful racehorse, King of Shadows, for a few days before it goes to stud. He knows nothing of horses, but is assured by the trainer, Dave Ringland, that this doesn't matter. His head lad will do all that is necessary, but employing an outsider such as Danzig to assist him should keep Ringland's insurers happy.

What appears on the face of it to be a comfortable and well-paid job, with money for doing very little, blows up in Danzig's face when he is knocked on the head and the horse stolen. Matters get worse, as a couple of murders follow. Meanwhile Danzig is warned off the case and beaten up. Who is the man responsible for the kidnap and ransom demands, who calls himself by the code name 'The Tetrarch'? And is he responsible for the murders?

The evidence increasingly suggests an inside job. Were one or more of Ringland's owners behind the heist? Jenson Straughan, posturing would-be business tycoon: the amiable Phil Black, with his almost impenetrable Black Country accent: hen-pecked nonentity Ron Nicholson, and his wimpish son. Maybe even Danzig's best friend, solicitor Richard Mantle, is not above suspicion. His mysterious and rather fey girlfriend Cynara Cross is certainly not. And what of Ringland himself? Or his bed-hopping wife, or rebellious daughter?

The first in a series of half a dozen murder mysteries involving Danzig and his young assistant Judith Hare, played out against the background of an English country town, and the picturesque if somewhat sinister surroundings of local beauty spot Sandford Heath.