There was an air of anticipation in Keighworth Police Station, and a good deal of apprehension. It was time for a change and the station awaited its new head, Superintendent Arthur Donaldson. When he arrived they were all in for a shock and his arrival caused as much upset as if a hurricane had hit the place. He'd no experience in street crime for he'd specialised in office management and traffic control; so when he is confronted with the murder of two widows, he is completely thrown. They were the wives of a local very wealthy merchant banker, Robin Wilkins, quickly befriended by Donaldson when he arrived in Keighworth. Fortunately, he has veteran Detective Inspector Blake Hartley and the younger Detective Sergeant Ibrahim Khan at hand to help him. They are experienced police officers who solve both murders - and more - in a case which takes Sgt Khan to Pakistan and its wild tribal border with Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Inspector Hartley cracks an art forgery racket and discovers how the two widows died. Set in the Pennine country of West Yorkshire and Karachi and the borderlands of Pakistan, "The Merchant Bank Mystery" examines the current British banking underworld as part of the wider social scene.