In a psychiatric clinic late one night, the piercing scream of a dying woman shatters the calm, and Commander Dalgliesh is called away from his literary soiree to investigate. He soon finds the body of a clinic employee sprawled across the cold basement floor, a chisel driven mercilessly through her heart; and so marks the beginning of a deadly psychological battle with an intellectual, predatory killer who feels no remorse, no regret and no self-control over his darker impulses...
