Vic Prince is a wise cracking detective, plying his trade in 1940's war torn Liverpool. Unable to enlist because of flat feet and asthma, Prince has an affinity with the City because his great grandfather was brought to the Mersey shores, on the last ever Slave Ship to dock, back in 1807. Prince has to wrestle with prejudice, the ostracising of his girlfriend and her Chinese father, his conscience when his best friend controls the City's black market and a detective sergeant who hates his guts. The City is alive with foreign factions because of the geographical proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and its strategic importance. There is also worry the Nazis are planning a land invasion and add to that, a constant bombing of Liverpool's dockland. The Cat's Whiskers; In this first instalment Prince is on the lookout for a missing Persian blue cat that everyone seems to want, is searching for the missing son of a beautiful widow that unwittingly puts him on the trail of a hired killer. As if that isn't enough his best friend is wanted by the Russians, who are on the trail of a cache of missing guns...and what has this all got to do with bodies found floating in the river, with no identifiable cause of death?