This book is a sequel to the first adventures of Thadeus Burke, published last year, and continues the antics of the aristocratic Lloyd's insurance broker and his sister, Dr Freddie, together with Inspector Johnny Jackson of Scotland Yard. It is now the summer of 1926 and our hero, assisted by his loyal staff, divide their time between the City of London and the City of Cambridge.

Following the Derby at Epsom, a body in the Cam, a major art robbery and some very peculiar anonymous postal deliveries, the amateur sleuths are kept busy until they can finally relax at the theatre in Paris.

Between the three main mysteries is woven, the missing officeboy, a kidnapped child and death at a séance. A rich variety of characters appear at the opera, funerals, cricket matches and a nudist colony! And he solves Fermat's last theorem. Great fun in Britain's last elegant decade, the nineteentwenties.