Literary agents are never the most popular of people, but crime novelist Max is shocked when he wakes up beside the body of his own Mr Ten Per Cent. His shock turns to horror when the corpse disappears and Max is the number one suspect.

Max and Nikki probe the mystery surrounding a mother's disappearance. 

Nikki falls for a visiting Scotland Yard inspector.

Round 1 of a strange case begins when a distraught teenager pleads with Max and Nikki to search for his missing father - a boxer whose trainer is shot after denying that he ever knew the fighter. As the mystery unfolds, the two sleuths discover that no one should be taken at face value.

The murder of a youg woman and the disappearance of the body brings together the unlikely duo of Max Beckett, a crime novelist who has built his reputation on being a retired Scotland Yard inspector, and Nikki Page, an ambitious young newspaper obituary writer.