When Mike Wakefield's business partner absconds with their printing firm's money, Detective Inspector Sloan is tasked with what appears to be a cut-and-dry case of embezzlement. However, unsettling events - tyres slashed, bricks through windows - make it clear that someone is really gunning for Mike. There is just one print job to put to bed in time for a lavish launch party at Ornum House. All goes according to plan until one of Mike's employees is found dead . And he wasn't the only casualty. DI Sloan and DC Crosby have a tangled set of motives and some devious chicanery to unpick to discover a killer. Catherine Aird was the author of more than twenty crime novels and story collections, most of which feature Detective Inspector Sloan. She was awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger for her lifetime contributions to crime fiction. She held an honorary MA from the University of Kent and was made an MBE. Apart from writing the successful Chronicles of Calleshire, she also wrote and edited a series of village histories. She passed away in 2024.