Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate a murder at a private nursing home for rich patients being treated by the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell.

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.

Two men lie dead in the vestry of a London church, their throats cut with brutal precision. One is Sir Paul Berowne, rich, cultivated and elegant; the other is an alcoholic vagrant. Challenged with the investigation of a crime that appears to have endless motives, Adam Dalgliesh explores the sinister web spun around a half-burnt diary and a violet-eyed widow who is pregnant and full of malice -- all the while hoping to fill the gap of logic that joined...