Chichester CID Inspector Henrietta "Hen" Mallin investigates a series of deaths by drowning that may be the work of an ex-con with a suspicious past.

In a Sussex town on the southeast coast of England, a widely disliked art teacher at a posh private girls' school disappears without explanation. Meanwhile, detective Peter Diamond finds himself in Sussex, much against his wishes. His irritating and often obtuse supervisor, Assistant Chief Constable Georgina Dallymore, has made Diamond accompany her on a Home Office internal investigation. A Sussex detective has been suspended for failing to follow...

When three policemen are murdered in the Bath area by a sniper who eludes authorities and younger detectives, Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond embarks on what becomes one of the most dangerous cases of his life.

When a competitive-bidding war for a rare carved stone is interrupted by three masked men who kill the highest bidder, Peter Diamond and his team investigate the carving's mystical origins while Ingeborg goes undercover to learn about the murder weapon.