Post War Britain was a drab place to live in. Bomb sites littered the towns and cities; clothes and food were on ration. The only entertainment was the ‘Flicks’ and for some there was horseracing and ‘the dogs’. Greyhound racing appeared a bit of fun and – if you were lucky – got you a bob or two. But the ‘wide boys’ soon moved in and things changed. Legit and flapper tracks were infiltrated by gangs from the big cities. Nowhere was out of reach – not even the tracks in deepest Devon.
That’s when the rot set in and the dogs became ‘dodgy’.
Dodgy dogs, loads of money and bent bookies all made for a dangerous mix. That mix inevitably led to threats, violence and eventually murder.
Detective Inspector Temple and Detective Sergeant Cantwell had been investigating a rather run-of-the-mill ‘missing person’ case in their sleepy seaside town. It didn’t stay that way for long and the ill-matched team began uncovering events that would lead to a full-scale betting and doping scandal involving not only racketeers but the County Set themselves.
This was the first major case for Temple and Cantwell as a team. IOT would not be their last.