‘I’ve seen chaos in my time: the great bazaar in Constantinople; the retreat after Magersfontein; Frenchmen trying to put up a tent.’

London, 1910: Harry Delamere is wishing he hadn’t agreed to a midnight meeting in the shipyard where Britain’s newest battleship is being built.

Now the police want him for murder, the workers of Europe have declared him their enemy, he’s hiding out with a burlesque dancer called Annabella Bliss and everyone’s trying to kill him.

Murder, mystery, melodrama, skullduggery, derring-do, international espionage, dangerous liaisons, villainous foreigners, the British class system, a couple of sentimental music hall numbers, significant incidents on battleships, thrilling chases in motor cars, desperate escapades on railway trains, fights to the death armed with only a duck pâté sandwich, all in correct gentleman’s attire.