Radu Herklots

Enjoying an overdue break in Venice, the Bishop of Rhyminster has a chance encounter with Oliver Canford; a flamboyant tour guide. Despite misgivings from his wife, Bishop Bob offers him the post of Bishop’s Lay assistant. But Canford neglects his duties in favour of flirting with the Chorister Mums and disappearing to London to sing with his refined choir. But when one of his absences extends to 48 hours, the Bishop worries. He calls in his old friend John Tedesco, who runs a bespoke detective agency with his colleague Lynne Davey.

When a body is discovered in the Rhyme Chantry, a forbidding structure known as “the Cage”, the tiny tourist city is thrust under the media spotlight. Join Tedesco and Davey as they encounter a byzantine world of rival voluntary groups, hard pressed clergy and warring choral societies.

In the second John Tedesco mystery, we find a heartbroken Tedesco returning to Rhyminster to be confronted by the tragic death of a volunteer guide who fell from the cathedral tower in suspicious circumstances.

The subsequent investigation sees Tedesco, his business partner Lynne Davey and Barker the border terrier become entangled in the murky web of local politics. Could the bitter selection process for the next MP provide the missing clue? Or does the answer lie in a long-forgotten tragedy which blighted the lives of a local family?

As Tedesco struggles with his own grief his TV reporter sister acquires an obsessive stalker, who just happened to be on a cathedral Tower Tour when the death occurred. What began as a simple accident investigation soon develops into Tedesco's most puzzling case so far.