It is a puzzle that has faced Scotland Yard from the beginning - whose was the limbless body found among the foundation? And in the murderous world of Sholto Lestrade, one question invariably is followed be another - what do a lecherous rector, a devious speculator, and a plagiarist novelist have in common? They’re all dead, each of them with a bloody space where his head used to be. And six others are to join them before our intrepid inspector brings the perpetrator to book. But 1886 is a bad year for the Metropolitan Police. The spectre of Communism haunts the land. There is a new Commissioner - a regular martinet - at the Yard. And then there is that very odd couple, sometime of Baker Street. Lestrade braves haunted houses, machine-gun bullets, and two Home Secretaries in his headlong hunt for the truth. And this is the book that chronicles his legendary impersonation of the great Sarah Bernhardt. The Police Revue will never be the same.