When Bruce McLintock is thrown out of a Glasgow nightclub called the Golden Venus, drunk and incapable, he has just lost his wife, his job on the Courier, his self-respect.

But he is taken in hand by Detective Chief Inspector Archie MacPherson and begins a new life as a freelance journalist and private investigator, with Mary Jo Milliken, capable, warm-hearted, the wife of a permanent invalid, as his secretary.

This is McLintock’s first important case, a drama involving blackmail, lust and greed played out against a background of crime and political unrest in Scotland and Northern Ireland. His unmasking of ‘the big boss’, who whistles Lord of the Dance, provides a sensational twist at the end.

Leavening the violent action is a tender—and unusual—love story.