The career of playwright Joy Sinclair comes to an abrupt end on an isolated estate in the Scottish highlands when someon drives an eghteen-inch dirk through her neck. Called upon to investigate th case in a country where they have virtually no authority, aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, grapple for both a motive and a murderer. Emotions run deeply in this highly charged drama, for the lis of suspects soo include Britain’d foremost actress, it’s most successfull theatrical producer, and the woman Lynley loves. He and Havers must tread carefully through the complicated terrain of human relationships while they work to solve a case rooted in the darkest corners of the past and the unexplored regions of the human heart.
