When Matthew Glynn, a respectable bookseller, is found bludgeoned and strangled, Chief Superintendent Wycliffe is mystified. Why would anyone want to kill him, and in such a brutal manner?<BR>But a look at Glynn's background reveals tension within the family. Alfred Glynn, an eccentric recluse, has held a grudge against his brother for years and the older brother, Maurice, argued bitterly with Matthew over the sale of family land. Add to this a discontented son, valuable documents in the bookseller's safe, and the mysterious, still unexplained disappearance of Matthew's wife years earlier, and Wycliffe is facing one of his most impenetrable cases.<BR>Then another Glynn dies and the murderer's identity seems obvious. But Wycliffe is not convinced - and soon uncovers some very murky secrets, and the possibility of another murder.