King Charles Island, a sleepy British colony in the West Indies, comes suddenly awake after the terrible murder of its most influential citizen. The supposed culprit is the hapless Peregrine Gore - assistant to banker sleuth Mark Treasure - but he'd rather flee than stop and sample the island's rudimentary justice system.

Treasure arrives on the island to find it in mayhem, and volunteers to help the baffled Chief Inspector find the real villain from among a bewildering bunch of suspects. But this time he may have bitten off more than he can chew - it will be hard to prove Peregrine's innocence when he was discovered clutching the victim's severed head...

Treasure up in Smoke is the third bombastic installment in David Williams' wonderfully witty series of murder mysteries about urbane banker and detective, Mark Treasure.

The most beguiling new talent in the detective-writing field * Spectator *
A delightful, complete invention . . . this irresistible book * Financial Times *
Witty and sophisticated * Daily Telegraph *

Stuart David Williams was a writer best known for his crime series featuring the banker Mark Treasure and police inspector DI Parry.

After serving as a Naval officer in the Second World War, Williams completed a History degree at St John's College, Oxford, before embarking on a career in advertising. He became a full-time fiction writer in 1978. Williams wrote twenty-three novels, seventeen of which were part of the Mark Treasure series of whodunits, which began with Unholy Writ (1976). His experience in both the Anglican Church and the advertising world informed and inspired his work throughout his career.