“I saw a child get killed… They strangled him upstairs, right there by the horse.” Billy has clear mental-health problems, but he’s convinced he witnessed the murder of a child when he was little—and his long-standing anxiety finally brings him to the office of the private detective Cormoran Strike, who has once again become famous after catching the Jack-the-Ripper of Shacklewell. Billy doesn’t get to finish—police are expected to arrive soon, and that makes him retreat. But his story won’t leave Strike’s mind.
Strike’s and his assistant Robin Ellacott’s attempts to get to the truth—she has become a full partner in their agency—will take them along a complicated winding path: from the outskirts of clubs where opponents of the London Olympics gather—to the intrigue-filled corridors of power; from parliamentary offices—to an estate shrouded in mystery deep in Oxfordshire… But it’s still unknown what will be harder for Cormoran and Robin: solving this fiendishly tangled puzzle, or dealing with their own feelings…