En vísperas de Navidad, mientras el ambiente festivo invade Londres, el inspector Brett Nightingale y el sargento Beddoes se enfrentan al cadáver de una anciana en un lúgubre piso de Islington. Su cuerpo no muestra señal alguna de violencia, pero el arcón debajo de su cama ha sido vaciado. Se habla de maravillosas joyas y fantásticas piezas de orfebrería. La fallecida es la aristócrata rusa Olga Karukhina, y su tesoro ha desaparecido. ¿Quién ha podido ser?, ¿el nieto oprimido por la anciana, los bolcheviques? Nightingale y Beddoes deberán investigar con celeridad si quieren pasar la Nochebuena en casa.
London. 22nd December. Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale and Sergeant Beddoes have been called to a gloomy flat off Islington High Street. An elderly woman lies dead on the bed, and her trunk has been looted. The woman is Princess Olga Karukhin, an emigrant of Civil War Russia and her trunk is missing its glittering treasure... Out in the dizzying neon and festive chaos of the capital a colorful cast of suspects abound: the downtrodden grandson, a plutocratic jeweler, Bolsheviks with unfinished business... Beddoes and Nightingale have their work cut out in this tightly-paced, quirky and highly enjoyable jewel of the British crime genre. This never-before-republished novel goes beyond the neat puzzles of country house historical mysteries by delivering the darker side of British police procedurals in an evocative urban setting.