A mummified murder victim with 1890’s clothes and effects, is found in an egg –shaped iron river buoy during the drive to recover scrap metal, in 1946 Liverpool. Clever police work leads Detective Inspector Hughes to discoveries that that the buoy used to lie on the beach behind the family house of a well -known Liverpool shipping family with a slaving past.
This past is cleverly intertwined with a second Liverpool family of slave descendants and has a key bearing on the mummy in the Egg.
Just when all the clues point to one man's guilt (just as he dies and everyone thinks the Iron Egg investigation will die with him) , evidence emerges that the person believed to be Egg man, did in fact drown in America. Science and information from a collector, prove that the murder is also much more recent . It becomes clear that the ID items were designed to deceive both the Law and most of the family.
This forces the murderer to add to the original cover up and another murder is committed. Hughes is initially deceived but discovers the fatal flaw in the plan. He sets a trap for his suspect.
A dramatic end-chase results. The male murderer dies while escaping, his beautiful wife thinks to the last that it will all be pinned on her husband, but Hughes surprises her with the extent of his knowledge and she will hang. Meanwhile, while the real criminal mastermind is untouchable by the Law. The original crime against the slave (a branding, based on a true story), is revealed to have generated consequences through the generations – creating several , very believable revenge motives. In the end both families are ruined. There are no winners – thanks to Hughes’ famed imagination , rigorous police work and some help from new science of the day.