The De Crespigny Lawn Mower Company was once the toast of lawns and royalty across the globe. With royal warrants to kings and queens around the world, the first choice of sporting establishments, and even running a racing team, De Crespigny's were as quintessentially part of the English countryside as marmalade and cider. But with competition from cheap imports, the increase of artificial grass installations, plus failing to move with the times, De Crespignys have gone bust! 

But then a sequence of events happens - murders of owners of De Crespigny lawn mowers - and only ever on a Tuesday. With no other officers in the Middlewick Constabulary wanting the case, the file lands on the desk of D.I. Snoop Hobart, whose career is in freefall - and he's flummoxed. The only common link between all the murders - each victim was the owner of a De Crespigny lawn mower.

Could these be random events or the work of a madman? Could there be a loon serial killer, or is the Mower Maniac - as christened by the Middlewick tabloids - in fact De Crespigny's thirty-something rapscallion hellion heir - Sebastian 'Basty' De Crespigny?

One thing's for certain: Wednesday - Monday is no probelm. But mowing your lawn on a Tuesday has now become the most dangerous past time in the England, and the Mower Maniac is about to expand his field.