A monster is loose in the normally quiet Essex town of Chilford - a fiend who has already not only murdered but mutilated three of the town's inhabitants in the bloody style of the infamous Jack the Ripper, for no apparent reason. When Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson arrive they find a fourth brutal slaying has taken place and Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard is clearly baffled! Watson chronicles the unravelling of a crime whose implications involve not only Chilford, but the highest levels of the British government.