Below The Clock

The clock is Big Ben, above the Houses of Parliament. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is ready to present his non populist budget. Arriving a little late, he makes his preliminary speech, sipping from a glass of claret-and-seltzer as he talks. But it is a speech he is never to finish - for Edgar Reardon suddenly topples to the floor, dead. Battling to keep any scandal to a minimum, Inspector Ripple and Amos Petrie uncover a conspiracy that goes to the very heart of government - and a murder so ingenious as to shock even an investigator of his experience with its audacity.