Barcelona in 1912 is a city still recovering from the dramatic incidents of the so-called 'Tragic Week' when Catalan conscripts bound for the unpopular war in Spanish Morocco had rebelled at the city's dockside against the royalist forces. In the fighting many were killed and afterwards even more were thrown into prison. Including an Englishman, who was later found dead in his cell.

The dead man had been a prominent businessman in Gibraltar. So what had he been doing in Barcelona? And how did he really meet his end? The case, in Gibraltar's view, cries out for investigation - and Seymour ticks all the right boxes.