The body of a woman solicitor was discovered by staff arriving yesterday morning at the Holborn offices of the prestigious London solicitors, Mather's. Katrina Pankhurst, 32 had been shot. Police are investigating.' A murder on the premises is bad news for a law firm. It discourages clients. It also discourages recruits which is damaging to a firm like Mather's with a reputation, a lot of clients, but very few partners. But, as Dave Woolf, one-time lawyer, part-time boozer and (almost) full-time private eye realises, a thorough professional would prefer a murder to a leak any day of the week. Dead men can't leak information on gambling debts, treachery, the darker side of freemasonry, and a dodgy business dating back forty years... A murder on the premises is bad news for a law firm. It discourages clients. It also discourages recruits which is damaging to a firm like Mather's with a reputation, a lot of clients, but very few partners. But, as Dave Woolf, one-time lawyer, part-time boozer and (almost) full-time private eye realises, a thorough professional would prefer a murder to a leak any day of the week. Dead men can't leak information on gambling debts, treachery, the darker side of freemasonry, and a dodgy business dating back forty years...

Born in Sussex in 1948 Andrew Arden is a qualified barrister and has written many books on housing law. But his real love is writing fiction, both under his real name and as Bernard Bannerman where he he has created the lawer private eye Dave Woolf