When Bernard Pomeroy finds a letter slipped under his door in the early
hours, he flies into a panic. After dashing off a short note to a
friend, he hands it to the porter at Corpus Christi College before
hastening on to the railway station and boarding a train leaving
Cambridge. However, shortly after disembarking at his destination, the
undergraduate lies dead on the platform.
Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are summoned by the Master of the
college to investigate Pomeroy's untimely demise. With the Boat Race on
the horizon, the president of the Cambridge Boat Club believes their
Oxford rivals are responsible for the death of their talented cox. Yet
it seems Pomeroy had ruffled many feathers during his short time at the
university.
With academic disputes, sporting rivalry and a clandestine romance in
play, the Railway Detective will have to disentangle the many threads of
Pomeroy's life in order to answer the truth about his death.