Misfits And Miscreants — Richard Hernaman Allen

1965. Starting work in Customs & Excise HQ in London, Nick Storey comes across some strange people, including a bully and a very tall rude man with a violent friend. He strikes up a friendship with a colleague, who is subsequently stabbed to death in an alley near the Monument. Though the police believe it was a robbery, only his briefcase was taken. Helped by Rosemary and a purloined notebook, Nick comes across a strange brotherhood, based on ancient and arcane wisdom of Balqis, Queen of Sheba. He is also drawn into a plan to catch colleagues receiving illicit payments for the return of temporarily imported cars seized by C&E, which involves Rosemary going undercover. However, sorting these out costs another life and isn't without risk to their lives as well. Misfits and Miscreants is the twenty-eighth book published in a series of detective stories set mostly in HM Customs & Excise, by Richard Hernaman Allen, a former Commissioner