Montague Pluke, the trough-collecting detective, is more entertainingly idiosyncratic than ever... On a quest for the legendary Holy Trough of Blackamoor, Detective Inspector Montague Pluke comes across a corpse; the dead man, Pluke discovers, has been shot in the head. When it is established that the victim was a suspect in a murder investigation the eccentric Pluke is pitched headlong into an investigation which spans both sides of the Pennines, leading him from the beauty of the great outdoors, to the seamy backstreets of Manchester. Protected by his rabbit's foot, rowan twig, double hazelnut and lucky blackthorn shillelagh, Pluke insinuates himself into a murderous criminal gang. What could possibly go wrong?