No one in the small English town of Fordhamton liked Alan Price. When he was found dead in a hotel bedroom Detective Chief Inspector Steve Winwood had plenty of suspects. On the other hand, he found that no one wanted Alan Price dead, he had more value to the town being alive. Then the post-mortem revealed that he had an unknown 'truth drug' in his system of a kind usually deployed by the secret services. He had met a woman for lunch who could have spiked his drink, but no one saw her enter his room or leave the hotel. He is assigned a new Sergeant, Miles Davis who prefers decaffeinated tea to Winwood's favourite Redbourne best bitter and a lifestyle quite alien to his superior officer. Winwood soon discovers that Alan Price's business has now collapsed on his death, but he had just secured a large export order which the company could not fulfil. Winwood finds a soulmate in the Banks's Assistant Manager Dave Edmunds, but it is Davis who understands the way International Trade works. Winwood has no luck in tracing the mystery woman at the hotel who he has codenamed Kaos. He suspects that she is working for MI5. Then an American who was staying at the same hotel as Price is found dead in his car outside Price's business premises with a can full of petrol. It appears that he was intending to set fire to the factory. Winwood continues to question anyone who had even the slightest contact with Alan Price. He needs to know what it is about the town and a small one-man business that attracts the attention of undercover agents and why The Famous Five his office manager, his investment advisor and wife, his ex-wife and her new boyfriend the Bank Manager) are planning a future with Price's estate.
