Margaret Ross thought Alfred Samson was a nasty-looking little man, and she was quite right. He was on nasty business: blackmail. Her son, Philip, not quite twenty and a student at Oxton University, had been having fun and games with Mr. Samson's wife, Annette.

Even more of a tiger than most mothers, Margaret is prepared to do anything to rescue her son. But when Alfred Samson turns up dead, she finds herself in more trouble than ever. It's a situation made to order for Arthur Crook, for as they say about him, "Arthur Crook can bend the evidence to suit the individual curve." Dangers gather like wasps around Margaret, and it will take all Crook's genius to get to her in time.