Detective Inspector John ‘Jack’ Mowgley grows ever more world-weary as his views on justice, duty and law enforcement become increasingly out of date. Rather than adapt to and conform with current thinking on positive policing, the dinosaur detective likes to do things his way, and consequently lurches from one crisis to the next. His fiefdom is a Continental ferry port on the south coast, but he fears he will lose control as he faces constant interference and criticism from his new boss, a very pc policewoman. The latest Inspector Mowgley Murder Mystery starts in a seaside caff as our hero mulls on the comparative virtues of ketchup or brown sauce on sausage sandwiches. Then his loyal assistant DS Catherine McCarthy arrives to report an event at the ferry port. A holidaying pensioner has suffered a heart attack after being stopped by Customs and having no explanation of why he is carrying a money belt stuffed with high denomination currency. As Mowgley and McCarthy investigate, they become involved in a series of increasingly brutal and bizarre murders on a trail which leads them from the seedier streets of Portsmouth to the hotspots of southern Spain...