The Shapes of SleepBen Sterndale, a freelance journalist who is currently not working, is offered a commission by a friend. The boss of the advertising agency where the friend works has lost, or had stolen a sheet of paper. This paper was covered in figures, but no-one knew what they meant. Sterndale establishes who visited the boss's office, and immediately realises that one of those is reported in the evening paper as a casualty in a road accident. He accepts the commission and heads off to the hospital where, by posing as an insurance man, he obtains some useful clues. The victim subsequently dies and Sterndale finds that there are several people looking into the man's affairs, none of whom is known to the others. His enquiries lead him to Germany, where he eventually tracks down the author of the paper, and discovers the meaning of those figures. |
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