If you were to guess how a womanising, middle-aged brewer was murdered, you might say he was shot by a jealous husband or drowned in his own beer - not savaged by a horse.

The strange death of Charles Berney, savaged and trampled to death by a horse on a windswept stretch of moorland, came as he had apparently settled down with an attractive young wife and was concentrating on developing his business. He may have argued with his wife at her birthday party the night before his death, but when he set off for a business meeting in London the following morning, no one expected him to end up murdered on the moor. How did he get there? The answer comes only after Gently has unravelled one of the most bizarre cases of his entire career