This is the story of two worlds – Argentina and England – linked by one trade – the export of livestock. This provides the starting point for this novel, set in the ever-changing world of the late Victorian era, when ruthless shipping magnates sought to make their fortune at any price. Was part of this cost the murder of George and Joyce Hope in the Argentine, and the death of their son, 14-year-old Fontaine Hope, on a deserted railway line on the Thames marshes a decade later?

To find the perpetrator and bring them to justice, Fontaine’s grandfather – Edward Hope – calls on the private detective William Reeves.

From the inns of the City of London to the marshlands of Essex and beyond, Reeves travels to hunt down the likely culprit – Alfonso Romero, and Argentinian whose roots lay with the gaucho bandits of his home country.

These murders test Reeves’ ability up to, and beyond, its limits – as a professional endeavour becomes ever more personal.