Two interlinked murders challenge Morse and Lewis. First Dr. Felix McClure, late of Wolsey College, Oxford, is found stabbed in his flat. The trail of clues leads to a college servant, one Edward Brooks. Then Brooks himself vanishes, and Morse suddenly finds himself with too many suspects, including Brooks’s wife, a prostitute, and an enigmatic schoolmistress. The detective, of course, is used to such puzzles. But as he finds himself attracted – in fact, more than attracted – to one of the possible killers, Morse is at sea in a way he has never known before.

          Colin Dexter is a multi-winner of The Silver Dagger Award. Acclaimed as the successor of Agatha Christie – a master of the crime novel.