An explosion of violence sends British sleuth Patrick Dawlish on the trail of a criminal empire that threatens the very foundations of crown and country.

Recruited by Scotland Yard to secretly investigate the ever-expanding substance abuse among London's upper echelons, Patrick Dawlish is once again ready to risk life and limb doing a job that isn't his. With two nightclubs to focus on, he gets entrée into one of the suspected drug dens when he offers to meet a friend's former fiancée, actress Chloë Farrimond.

When his meeting is highjacked by armed goons, Dawlish narrowly escapes, learning that the whole murderous affair was set off by the search for a set of silver-backed hair brushes, a gift from Chloë to her former love. Dawlish could never expect that such a simple accessory could draw a secret organization out of the shadows with machine guns blazing—in a spree of crime and corruption on a level never before seen . . .