As everyone knows, few things can ruin an elegant dinner party like a grisly murder. It's even worse when it's the host's first party, and it's at Big Hippo's Steakhouse, in the most expensive private dining room in the most expensive restaurant in Maatlamotse. And it's worse still when the host is Henry the Honey Badger.

Modern forensic investigators search for DNA to solve crimes, but Henry has his nose. As everyone knows, honey badgers have an extraordinary sense of smell, and very little escapes Henry's olfactory data scan. And when something is rotten in Malinda, Henry can smell it. And as it turns out, there's a lot more rotten than a single murder.

Henry is a Long Range Reconnaissance Honey Badger and a member of Ghost Force. He's also an internationally acclaimed consulting detective, and he is determined to get to the bottom of things. And it's a deep and dark bottom.

As always, he is backed by other Ghost Force members, such as Cassandra Riley, her husband Major Riley, Chief Inspector Cecil Richardson of the Northern District, Danger Dan Coetzee and his fiancée, Dr. Patti the Stewardess. There's also a tough police commissioner in the capital, a remarkable woman named Michael Tsholofelo's girlfriend, and an American traveling singer who happened to take a temporary job at Big Hippo's Steakhouse.

As always seems to happen, there are bad guys, good guys, the best of people creatures and the worst. There's adventure, intrigue, romance and a whole lot of shooting.

And as everyone knows, every word of this story is true.