The new case was probably just a matrimonial. Sad, because of the girl involved, but inevitable, given the background. When private detective Frank Sterling returns to Belgium, however, things take a darker turn. Before long, he and his ragtag team are involved in a desperate adventure. With characteristic persistence, and his usual haphazard combination of skill and intuition, Sterling uncovers a conspiracy far beyond the concerns of a jilted lover. Insurrection, murder, and betrayal are just some of the challenges to be faced and overcome...

Continuing the re-release of the late Dawn Powell's acclaimed fiction, this is the story of an engagingly amoral hero who desires to replace his real father with an imagined one. Using his mother's diaries, he seeks the off-beat artist or writer whose youthful indiscretion he believes he might have been--in the process coming to grips with his parentage and himself. Originally published in 1962.