A body plunging off a cliff, a new craze for pedestrianism or race-walking with gambling, a constable willing to make a gruelling ninety miles through the tree-covered ranges without a break, and a testing undercover assignment for Mr. Hardy.

Napier to The Hot Lakes, New Zealand, 1882: When a race walking champion is forced off a cliff to his death, and his fellow race-walkers are all suspects, Mr. Hardy and Constable Foster go undercover in a race set up by the constabulary to find the killer. An accident-filled race walk to The Hot Lakes leads to a showdown in the bubbling mud and geysers in the centre of New Zealand's North Island.

A fast-paced, action-filled addition to the Mr. Hardy Investigates series.