Inspector Bill Slider - middle-class, middle-aged, and middle-of-the-road - is never going to make it to Scotland Yard. He's spent most of his working life at Shepherd's Bush nick, and stopped minding long ago about being passed over for promotion.But then the unidentifiable body of a woman turns up on his patch, and suddenly Slider and his partner Atherton have a chance to prove themselves.As they wrestle with an investigation, in which the only clues are a priceless Stradivarius and a giant tin of olive oil, everyone - most of all Slider himself - is wondering whether this latest crisis will make or break the steely-eyed detective.