Ben the tramp is back at sea, a stowaway bound for Spain in the company of a wanted man the Hammersmith murderer.
Ben, wandering hungry through the foggy back alleys of Limehouse, is spooked by news of an old man murdered in Hammersmith and runs He crosses a plank, slips through an iron door, and goes to sea with the coal. But so does the man who did the murder, and a very pretty lady who did not. On the way, the Atlanta loses a stowaway, a pickpocket, a murderer, a super-crook, a wealthy passenger, the third officer and a lifeboat. And that is how Ben gets to Spain . . .
Combining laughs and thrills on every page, J. Jefferson Farjeon s books about the adventures of Ben the tramp entertained 1930s detective readers like no other Crime Club series, and Murderer s Trail was more popular than ever."