Inspector Anne Stanford, on sick-leave from the CID, visits Italy with an aunt who expects to receive the Visconti prize for biotechnology. First they are told that the prize should have been awarded to someone else; then they discover that it never existed. So why did someone pretend that it did? And is Anne Stanford going to take on another case when she has earned the right to a break from policing and especially from her Chief Inspector Crabtree?

A tale of intrigue involving multinationals and at the same time a story with a strongly westcountry flavour, Inspector Stanford's...