The Worms Must Wait

It was a dead man, encased within a stalagmite ... the petrifying effect of the dripping water held him in his own opaque, unyielding capsule. It had given him a dark green, semi-transparent dunce cap ... a thin icicle-like beard which bridged his chin to chest. — Pot-holers discovered the body in a Yorkshire cave. In this bizarre and colorful setting Superintendent Ripley of the Beechwood Brook Division sets up his Murder Headquarters. The massive cadres and resources of a Northern Police Division are portrayed in all the details of their activities,and in their motivations. Ripley himself, a policeman who has investigated earlier crimes recorded in John wainwright's novels, here meets a situation which is gruesome in itself; and which is made no easier for him by the involvement of individuals who are important to him in his private life. To his aid comes his friend Superintendent Collins from Hallsworth Hill.