The Closter Drug company is going to double in value as soon as it perfects its cure for migraine: most of the directors are set to make sizeable fortunes as they float the company on the Stock Exchange.

When a group pledged to stopping experiments on animals demonstrates at a Closter news conference, the action is seen as no more than embarrassing. But the kidnap of one of the Closter directors that follows cannot be so easily ignored, especially when, instead of a ransom, the kidnappers demand that the other directors sell their company shares at a crippling loss. No one understands what the kidnappers themselves are gaining by this, until banker Mark Treasure - the non-executive Chairman of Closter Drug - returns from an American trip and works out what's really happening. Even so he is too late to prevent two murders and the stock market skulduggery that decimates Closter management and threatens to wipe out the company.

'An ingenious puzzle.' Mail on Sunday

'David Williams consistently offers well-crafted English mystery novels, polite, amusing and socially observant.' The Tablet