[1] It is the fourteenth in his series of novels featuring Inspector French, a Scotland Yard detective of the Golden Age known for his thorough technique.

[2] Comparing the novel to Margery Allingham's latest release Flowers for the Judge in his review for The Spectator, Cecil Day-Lewis writing under his pen name of Nicholas Blake commented "Mr. Crofts’s new book is excellent too.

The insurance company covering an expensive part of the cargo are far from satisfied and before they pay out the £100,000 owed they engage Sutton, a trusted private detective, to investigate.

He traces the delivery of the valuable cargo from the Watford factory to the Pool of London where they were loaded onto the Jane Vosper.

Eventually, with his customary painstaking work he discovers a plot linking stolen explosives from a quarry in Wales to a shed in the City of London where Sutton's buried body is found.