Coffin's rise to command was meteoric, notwithstanding a brief "dark spell," a failed marriage, and the death of a child which are all examined in detail in the eleven prior John Coffin mysteries.

Coffin is summoned to the home of a former Prime Minister, Richard Lavender. Lavender is ninety years of age, forgotten by many, but disturbed by a threat to his reputation he is so zealously guarding for posterity.

Lavender confesses to Coffin some of the unknown details of his past. At ten years of age, he returned home to find his mother distraught. She confided that his father was the serial killer who had claimed three widely publicized victims, and the fourth was dead in the courtyard. She enlisted Richard's aid in burying the body.

Lavender's guilt is surfacing, perhaps because he has been receiving threatening letters, and perhaps because an investigative reporter is digging into his past. Coffin is asked to investigate the crimes since Lavender feels he must make reparation to the victims’ families, and most importantly he wants to know the identity of the victim he helped bury.

Coffin is not quite sure he believes Lavender but assigns his best officer, Phoebe Ashley, to head the investigation. Phoebe is perhaps the only female that Coffin's wife Stella fears. When the investigative reporter is murdered, Coffin investigates, and more and more logical motives surface.

The major characters are from dramatically different worlds, but they are intertwined and are well crafted, although quirky. Most everyone takes a turn as a suspect. This novel is very reminiscent of the styles of Ngaio Marsh or Agatha Christie, although modernized by issues of the nineties.

--Thea Davis