“Miss Allingham has a strong, well controlled sense of humour, a power of suggesting character with a few touches and an excellent English style. She has a sense of the fantastic, and is never dull.” –_Times Literary Supplement_

Back at the Intelligence Department, Albert Campion takes an interest in Saltey, a remote and tight-lipped Thames estuary village. The place has a long history of smuggling - and holds a secret rich enough to make someone threaten, terrorize, murder and raise the very devil to keep strangers away.