A hideous scream pierces the calm of the evening psychotherapy session. The body of a woman lies sprawled in the basement of the Steen Clinic, a chisel thrust through her heart.Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh, gently relaxing at a literary party close by, hurries over to investigate the murder. What are the secrets hidden behind the unassuming faade of the Georgian terrace? Is the killer a patient or a crazed healer? The motives lie thick as Dalgliesh probes beneath the unruffled surface of the clinic and uncovers a labyrinth of intrigue. Professionally he has never known the taste of failure. Now, for the first time, he feels unsure of his own mastery, as if opposed by an intelligence equal to his own - and a murderer set to strike again.'She has pushed ... against the boundaries of the classical detective story' - Julian Symons
