With his trusty adjunct, Detective Sergeant Ratzi, away for Christmas, there s no holiday for Detective Inspector Le Brock of Scotland Yard as he embarks on an investigation into the disappearance of his housekeeper s niece, Bunty Spall. The trail leads to a growing religious cult, where a charismatic unicorn messiah and his con men cronies, already responsible for mass murder in the United States, are about to lead a crusade for the ethnic cleansing of the French Empire s doughfaces the derogatory nickname for humans used by the majority, animal-headed population. Teaming up with Chance Lucas, a gun-slinging operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and reigniting his steamy love affair with the voluptuous Parisian badger prostitute Billie, Le Brock clashes with both cult fanatics and doughface terrorists, uncovering in the process a centuries-old religious conspiracy that threatens to plunge the world into bloody civil war. With Paris in the grip of the mysterious crime lord, Tiberius Koenig, and an increasingly violent backlash by human extremists, can Le Brock stop the seemingly inevitable slide into fascism? What is the secret of the legendary True Gospels? Can he rescue Bunty Spall from the clutches of the strangely hypnotic unicorn named Apollo? But does Bunty want to be saved? And will Le Brock be back in time for Christmas dinner? No badger does it better!