Rook, Rhyme & Sinker

A hoard of ivory chessmen discovered on the Isle of Lewis in 1831 still commands the attention of scholars and museum patrons in modern-day London, but the police are more concerned with the connection a newly discovered rook has with a body that just bobbed up in the Regents Canal. ..... Just when Ernie Bisquets, a reformed London pickpocket, was settling into his new life with the East London Adventurers Club, his daily routine is interrupted by the apparent suicide of an old school mate. What surprises him even more is the bequeath left to him by the deceased-an old nursery rhyme and one of the lost Lewis Chessmen. Intrigued over the connection, the group investigates the circumstances surrounding the death. They soon find it was murder, and that leads to the discovery of a lost hoard of these priceless artifacts hidden in a St. Ives bridge. What they don't realize is an unscrupulous antique dealer, who has been searching for this lost hoard for decades, is shadowing their every move.