Just round the corner I'd be in sight of the main entrance to the flats. And that's all I remember. That, and a tremendous pain, and a kind of flash.

An urgent plea from Lady Marport to find her missing seventeen-year-old daughter plunges Ludovic Travers into Soho's dark underworld of blackmail, drugs and murder-a subterranean search that leads to discotheques, a pep-pill ring and a pornographic film company.

Who was the mysterious bearded man whom the missing girl, Beryl, had known the year before, and who Travers suspects may be connected with her disappearance? What was his connection with the Painter Academy and with the man-whose face was vaguely familiar-whom Travers meets during the course of his inquiries? And why does Lady Marport suddenly and most surprisingly call a halt to the investigation?

The Case of the Prodigal Daughter was originally published in 1968. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.