The grisly discovery in the trunk provides a new line of inquiry that leads to a hidden room, ties to intelligence agents, and a scandalous society at the heart of the museum. The team race to crack the case as the killer prepares to strike again.

Marcus and Caroline Dupayne struggle to convince their brother, Neville, to renew the lease on their family's museum. When Neville's car is torched on the museum grounds and he perishes inside, all who work there are suspects-including his siblings.

In the wake of another death tied to the law chambers, the police interrogate everyone, uncovering connections between the victims and witnesses. But as they sort the significant from the coincidental, time is running out to save Octavia from Ashe.

Not long after securing an acquittal for Garry Ashe in his aunt's murder, controversial defense barrister Venetia Aldridge is fatally stabbed. Suspicion falls on her colleagues, with whom she fought, and on her daughter's fiancé - none other than Ashe.

Another dead body is discovered, staged to look like a suicide. Dalgliesh and Miskin begin to untangle a web of rivalries and infidelities within the rural community, unearthing a killer with secrets to hide and tracks to cover.

A girl's body is found in a remote part of Norfolk. The postmortem seems routine, but shortly afterwards the senior biologist at the forensics lab is murdered. DCI Adam Dalgliesh and DS Kate Miskin are called in to lead the inquiry.