Former Detective Chief Inspector Leon ‘Fred’ Karno recently retired from the Cornishire CID has been knighted for ‘Services to the Crown, unspecified’ as a result of his exploits recounted in The Kaieteur Caper. Now in practice as a Private Investigator with his old friend Wild Bill Hiscock, ex beach bum, ex SAS trooper, ex gentleman of the road and current alcoholic acting as his practice manager he has also acquired a live-in housekeeper, the barking mad Missus ‘O’, Carenza O’Shaughnessy although he has no idea how this came about.
Who is contaminating Penhaligons Original Cornishire pasties and why. Is it connected with a devious plan by Lancelot Penhaligon the Managing Director to genetically engineer a breed of cold-resistant camels to sell to the Inuit to replace Huskies or might it be that Penhaligon is trying to produce a breed of pre-shrunk, carnivorous tree-climbing camels to sell to African game parks as a deterrent to ivory poachers? Is Penhaligon disposing of the non-surviving camels by adding the camel meat to Penhaligon’s pasties and if so why would he damage his own company? Is Wild Bill right when he says that green pasties are camels?
In this first case in the Karno PI series, Karno attempts to discover who is sabotaging the premier Cornishire pastie company Penhaligons and more importantly why. Could it possibly be that his old nemesis Martin has somehow survived the Kaieteur Falls or is the involvement of the CIA (Cornishire Independence Agenda) merely a coincidence? Is Wild Bill correct in thinking that there is a plan to genetically engineer a breed of cold resistant camels to sell to the Inuit as replacements for Huskies or might the plan be to sell pre-shrunk, tree-climbing carnivorous camels to African game reserves to deter ivory poachers?
Karno considers these and other problems in this latest madcap case.
