'It was the smell that Mrs Powell noticed first. Slightly sweet. Slightly unpleasant.the smell of decay eddied out from inside when she pulled open the garage doors.Certainly she didn't expect to find a corpse.' Who was Billy Blake - an alcoholic vagrant who quoted poetry and preached redemption - and why did he die? Mike Deacon, a cynical, somewhat discredited journalist, wants to know. He's intrigued by both Blake's death - could anyone really die of starvation in one of the wealthiest districts in London? - and by the beautiful woman who found him, Amanda Powell. Amanda Powell avoided the Press then - why is she now obsessed by Blake and his life? Deacon begins his own investigation to find out if her interest could possibly be connected to her merchant banker husband who absconded abroad with ten million pounds, five years ago. Since then he has not been seen.yet she has all the trappings of a very rich woman.