George King, a private detective working in London, is on a downward spiral. His wife kicked him out of the family home when he was asked to leave the Metropolitan Police by mutual consent, his apartment-come-office is an old insurance office area over a Chinese restaurant, and the women that used to love his physique and his love-making prowess, have all deserted him.

He throws everything into detection and what he calls his gizmos, pieces of equipment that gain him information that he would have required a warrant for if he’d still been a police officer. What looks like a simple proof-for-divorce case turns out to be more complicated, involves the police and an old colleague, DCI Bradley Mellors, and also introduces him to a woman DI Gloria Mayhew that he believes he doesn’t know, but she knows him.

The various adventures start and see multiple murder attempts, a narcissistic husband, the involvement of drugs through Spain towards the UK, the taming of what used to be the bad boy, and someone who wants to find the “Sweetness Of Revenge. ”.