Since leaving the army, Peter Blair has embraced a quiet life of solitude and sailing off the Salcombe coast. So it's an unpleasant shock when he stumbles across a body on the rocks off Prawle Point.

The case seems simple, if sad - the woman is identified as Edna Brown, a mousy London secretary whose hotel room contains a suicide note.

But all is not as it seems. Someone is very keen to keep Peter quiet, and before long he realises that if he wants to stay safe, it is up to him to solve the mystery of Edna's real identity - and who would kill to keep her quiet.

In this first Peter Blair mystery, master of 1970s crime J.R.L. Anderson spins an exhilarating yarn. Disguises and codes, drug smuggling and murder: Peter must use all his wits to make sure his first investigation is not also his last.