The murder is in America, yet the call goes out to English police superintendent Richard Jury. This is only the first unique aspect of a case that would try the keen talent of Scotland Yard's sleuth. Accompanied by his aristocratic friend Melrose Plant and by Sergeant Wiggins, Jury arrives in Baltimore, Maryland, home of zealous Orioles fans, mouth-watering crabs, and Edgar Allan Poe.
Amid a puzzling scenario of literary larceny, dubious descendants, football franchises, and monstrous murder, Jury bends elbows with a delicious and suspicious cast of characters who introduce him to the delights of the city. And as the evidence of the murders he's been sent to solve becomes too tangled to understand, Jury finds answers-and liquid refreshment-at a unique tavern called The Horse You Came In On...