An evil-tempered forensic scientist is put to death, putting many of his colleagues out of misery. Commander Adam Dalgliesh must exhume the secrets of Dr. Lorrimer's laboratory in order to lay bare the murderous motive hidden in one human heart.

Scotland Yard's Adam Dalgliesh leaves London to vacation in Norfolk and becomes enmeshed in the hunt for the perpetrator of a series of murders of young women, which continues even after the murderer's capture.

Murders present meet murders past in P.D. James's latest harrowing, thought-provoking thriller. Life imitates art. The redoubtable Commander Adam Dalgliesh is on the trail of a murderer whose MO mimics a museum exhibit. The Dupayne, a small London museum devoted to the interwar years 1919-1939, is in turmoil. As its trustees argue over whether it should be closed, one of them is murdered. Yet even as Dalgliesh investigates this mysterious killing,...