Commander Dalgliesh undertakes a highly sensitive murder investigation at the Dupayne Museum. The circumstances of the case bear an unsettling similarity to the historical cases commemorated in the museum's notorious Murder Room.

Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh retreats to an isolated town for some rest, but his isolation is shattered when he discovers he cannot escape murder.

Dark secrets lurk behind the respectable facade of a government minister's household in a complex case of multiple murder.

Commander Dalgliesh is asked by Sir Alfred Treeves, a successful businessman, to investigate the death of his son, one of the young ordinands of the theological college of St. Anselm's in East Anglia.