"I am going to kill a man. I don't know his name, I don't know where he lives, I have no idea what he looks like. But I am going to find him and kill him." When the victim of his murder plot turns up dead, Frank Cairns should be satisfied. The problem is, Frank didn't kill him. Celebrated crime author Frank Cairns knows how to get away with murder. He's had the experience constructing the perfect crime in his novels. Now, he intends to use his skills to get his own real-life revenge.

Frank plans to murder the driver who killed his young son in a hit-and-run, but when his intended victim is found dead, Cairns becomes the prime suspect. Advocating his innocence, an old friend of Cairns calls in private detective Nigel Strangeways to help prove Cairns has been framed. Detective Strangeways must unravel a fiendishly plotted mystery if he is to discover what really happened to George Rattery.