Abercrombie “Filthy” Lewker, famed actor-manager, mountaineer and amateur sleuth, is in the village of Bickerdale, Cumberland, with his wife, Georgie, on a walking holiday. They have hardly set foot in the town, however, when news comes to Lewker’s attention that a young woman is missing from the local Youth Hostel. Joining the search, he finds the girl, Gay Johnson, floating in a pool of water. She appears to have fallen from the rock face above – but could tumbling down the cliff really have left her with a single head-wound?

Published in 1952.