On compassionate leave after the murder of his wife, Thomas Lynley is called back to Scotland Yard when the body of a woman is found stabbed and abandoned in an isolated London cemetery. While Lynley works on the case in London, his former colleagues Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata follow the murder trail south to the New Forest--and to an outcome that is both tragic and shocking.

A collection of five stories of human weakness and psychological suspense includes one tale that features a cameo appearance by a young Inspector Thomas Lynley.

Inspector Thomas Lynley is mystified when he's sent undercover to investigate the death of Ian Cresswell at the request of the man's uncle, the wealthy and influential Bernard Fairclough. The death has been ruled an accidental drowning, and nothing on the surface indicates otherwise. But when Lynley enlists the help of his friends Simon and Deborah St. James, the trio's digging soon reveals that the Fairclough clan is awash in secrets, lies, and motives....

Barbara is at a loss: The daughter of her friend Taymullah Azhar has been taken by her mother, and Barbara cant really help-Azhar had never married Angelina, and his name isnt on Hadiyyahs, their daughters, birth certificate. Azhar and Barbara hire a private detective, but the trail goes cold. Azhar is just beginning to accept his soul-crushing loss when Angelina reappears with shocking news: Hadiyyah is missing, kidnapped from an Italian marketplace....

Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley of New Scotland Yard seeks the identity of an amoral killer in the death of a boy missing from a school in West Sussex.

After the senseless murder of his wife, Detective superintendent Thomas Lynley retreated to Cornwall, where he has spent six solitary weeks hiking the bleak and rugged coastline. On the forty-third day of his walk he discovers the body of a young man who appears to have fallen to his death. The closest town, better known for its tourists and its surfing than for its intrigue, seems an unlikely place for murder. However, ti soon becomes apparent...

Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley comes to the green valleys of Keldale to solve the savage murder of a farmer.

When country milkman Martin Snell makes his usual delivery to fifteenth-century Celandine Cottage one fine spring morning in Kent, he expects to be greeted by the cottage's seductive tenant, Gabriella Patten, not the ugly remains of a fire pointing to murder. A burnt-out chair, a peculiar pattern of soot on the walls, an asphyxiated corpse, two footprints, and a collection of discarded cigarette butts bring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his...

Balford-le-Nez is a dying seatown on the coast of Essex. But when a member of the town's small but growing Asian community is found dead near its beach, the sleepy town ignites. Intrigued by the involvement of her London neighbor, Taymullah Azhar, in what appears to be a racial conflagration, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers arranges to have herself assigned to the investigation. But this is one case Barbara Havers must solve without her longtime...

In London, a woman parliamentarian's daughter is kidnaped and a newspaper editor with whom the parliamentarian had an affair receives a call, threatening the girl's life unless he admits paternity. Inspector Lynley suspects the girl is behind it.