A recent widower and acclaimed poet, enigmatic Inspector Adam Dalgliesh employs his exceptional empathy and insight to plumb the darker depths of the human psyche while investigating complex crimes in 1970s England.
Student nurse Heather Pearce dies during a training demonstration. Detective Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh is sent to investigate, accompanied by his partner DS Masterson.
After Fallon's death, Dalgliesh finds a library book in Fallon's room and a letter in Pearce's pigeonhole about a patient of Courtney-Briggs' called Martin Dettinger.
The timeline moves on to March 1975, and Dalgliesh is invited to Dorset by his old friend Father Michael - only to discover that he died a few days ago. Father Michael lived in a home for the disabled run by the enigmatic Wilfred, who has organised trips to Lourdes ever since he was miraculously cured there of a serious illness. When Dalgliesh learns that provocative resident Victor recently wheeled himself off a cliff in an apparent suicide, he wonders if his death might be connected to Father Michael's.
Wilfred announces that he will transfer the Grange to the Ridgewell Trust and hold a vote on whether he will carry on as spiritual adviser and, despite Eric and Helen's plot to usurp Wilfred, the majority of the Grange vote for him to stay, ensuring the Lourdes trips will continue. Grace's post mortem deems her death to be non-suspicious and Dalgliesh struggles to gather enough evidence to charge Wilfred.
In May 1975, eight-year-old Darren and churchwarden Miss Wharton find two dead bodies in the vestry of St Matthew's Church, Paddington, their throats slashed. One is Sir Paul Berowne, a baronet and recently resigned Tory MP, the other a homeless man called Harry Mack. Dalgliesh is called in to investigate, accompanied by cocky DS Masterson and his new DS Kate Miskin.
After the attack on Father Barnes while Halliwell was in custody, Dalgliesh brings Swayne and Lampart in for questioning. Meanwhile, Miskin tracks down nurse Theresa, who used to work at Campden Hill House and now works at Lampart's clinic.
A girl's body is found in a remote part of Norfolk. The postmortem seems routine, but shortly afterwards the senior biologist at the forensics lab is murdered. DCI Adam Dalgliesh and DS Kate Miskin are called in to lead the inquiry.
Another dead body is discovered, staged to look like a suicide. Dalgliesh and Miskin begin to untangle a web of rivalries and infidelities within the rural community, unearthing a killer with secrets to hide and tracks to cover.
Not long after securing an acquittal for Garry Ashe in his aunt's murder, controversial defense barrister Venetia Aldridge is fatally stabbed. Suspicion falls on her colleagues, with whom she fought, and on her daughter's fiancé - none other than Ashe.
In the wake of another death tied to the law chambers, the police interrogate everyone, uncovering connections between the victims and witnesses. But as they sort the significant from the coincidental, time is running out to save Octavia from Ashe.
Marcus and Caroline Dupayne struggle to convince their brother, Neville, to renew the lease on their family's museum. When Neville's car is torched on the museum grounds and he perishes inside, all who work there are suspects-including his siblings.
The grisly discovery in the trunk provides a new line of inquiry that leads to a hidden room, ties to intelligence agents, and a scandalous society at the heart of the museum. The team race to crack the case as the killer prepares to strike again.
Dalgliesh heads to a seminary in West Sussex to investigate the bloody murder of a senior churchman. He finds that nearly everyone there had a personal grievance against the victim-and several of them are lying.
A second death shakes the order. As Dalgliesh uncovers the secret agenda of one of his suspects, the seminary falls further into disrepute. But this may be the key to unlocking the killer's motive.
A murder in the house of an influential family brings Commander Dalgliesh to the heart of Essex. As he considers the prospect of a politically motivated attack, a local man comes forward with an explosive allegation.
Through a pair of grueling interrogations, the victim's life comes into sharper focus, but will it lead the police to their killer? After a shocking confession is made, Dalgliesh realizes he has been lied to.
Kent police search for a serial killer targeting the female employees of a nuclear power station. Dalgliesh arrives to investigate a possible terrorist connection.
The hunt is on for a second killer as the threat to the local community looms larger than ever. Can Dalgliesh unpick a complex web of loyalties before it's too late?
