David Denby (an accomplished art thief), is looking forward to an amusing lunch date with an old flame: the lovely Contessa Antonella. But the meeting leads to an astonishing request - and his most ambitious theft to date. The meticulously executed crime taxes the experience and imagination of Commissiario Pasetti, for whom the biggest mystery of all is, WHY? Meanwhile, on the fringes of society, two people threaten Denby's escape: Anna, a street urchin, who lives by picking the pockets of tourists - and a vagrant known as 'Radio Man'. Their evidence leads the dogged Pasetti in hot pursuit...

A light-hearted and nostalgic look at the 1970s world of the Coarse Punter, when Betting Shops were still shrouded in secrecy - and frowned upon by many in the community. Meet some of the characters that could be regularly encountered in this environment - The Bookie himself, Clothcap the erstwhile student of racing form, Hunch, The Mathematician, Hoodoo, The Turncoat, The Mole, Charlie Fluke...you will probably recognise many of them if, in your past, you inhabited these establishments at some time or other. Complete with a Coarse Punter's Form Guide, an amusing Glossary of Horseracing terms...