Used paperback in good condition. Cover and pages showing average wear. Bad scuff mark on top right of cover. Price sticker on flyleaf. 287 pages. Published by Coronet, 1978. ISBN 0340223227.

Follow Bucken, a policeman with panache, as he traces a dastardly plot to destroy the Essex coastline.

As some of those closest to Bucken are picked off one by one - the reliable Lad, the refugee, hot-dog selling, chess-playing Professor, even a murder attempt on Bucken’s daredevil girlfriend, Maxine - it becomes clear that this plot is not just the project of the devious but feeble-minded Cutter-Smith, who dreams of glory for himself and his one-legged wife, Winnie.

An evil mastermind must be behind it all. But who is this man? Will Bucken discover him in time and foil his gruesome machinations?

Or will the Bank of England be forced to pay £1,000,000 in blackmail in the hope of stalling Cutter-Smith’s threat to explode the Blockbuster and in so doing unleash a tidal wave on the Thames?