Why would a sniper shoot suburban physiotherapist Rachel James as she sips her morning coffee? Inspector Morse''s hunt for answers kicks off with a tabloid journalist, winds through the strip clubs of Soho, then returns to Oxford, where two senior dons and their wives battle for a plum promotion. Then, on the personal front, Inspector Morse receives intimations of his own mortality.

And while Morse muses on life, he reveals his first name at last. . . .


From the Paperback edition.