Who has killed Hardy West? Has anyone killed the failed novelist? All Ned Spearbroke (Hardy's literary agent) knows is that his client told him he had written a political expose, and now Hardy and the alleged manuscript are both missing. Meanwhile, another writer, a friend of Hardy and Ned, is found dead; Ned's office is ransacked; and the friend of Ned's assistant is brutally murdered - a case of mistaken identity? Ned keeps looking for the manuscript and Hardy to find the secrets that could be so threatening to someone.