Miss Edyth Vale, heiress to a steel fortune, has paid the youthful investigator Ashton-Kirk a visit. Her fiancé has become entangled in a secret and intensely stressful business matter, which is casting a shadow over their nascent relationship. Using her resources, she’s discovered that the cause of the problem is a numismatist called Hume, and Ashton-Kirk agrees to check up on him. Yet before he can even pay a visit, Hume is discovered in his office with a bayonet in his chest. Ashton-Kirk must uncover the real murderer, but with such a wide cast of suspects, he has his work cut out for him.

Although the character of Ashton-Kirk had appeared in earlier serials, Ashton-Kirk, Investigator is the first in a series of novels by John T. McIntyre focusing on the youthful private investigator. Following in Sherlock Holmes’ footsteps as a scientific investigator-for-hire, Ashton-Kirk carefully considers all possible events, often operating several steps ahead of his colleagues—and the reader.