As New York basks in a fine Indian summer, no one notices the feral teenagers in Central Park, or the homeless living by the river. Certainly no-one connects them to the Russian gangsters buying into respectability on the East Side, or to the dead Englishman in the swimming pool...

Thomas Pascoe, a super-rich, elderly investment banker, is found gorily murdered on the day he was due to return to London, floating in the pool of the most exclusive apartment block in town. As head of the 'co-op' for the luxury apartments, where the residents own the shares, Pascoe had his say in who got to live in them, and who didn't. Could this be a motive for his murder?

The investigation takes Artie Cohen to London, where the gripping plot unfolds with a series of murders, an encounter with his longtime girlfriend, and a meeting with a figure from the past. The momentum of apparently tangential events builds to a trademark thrilling conclusion.