
Until someone, lying in wait on the bank of the River Cam, where Elena went running every morning, bludgeoned the young woman to death.Ĭalled into the rarefied world of academia, Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner Barbara Havers find a tangled skein of love, obsession and desire - a maelstrom of emotion that has claimed Elena Weaver's life. A student at St Stephen's College, Cambridge, she lived a life of casual but intense physical and emotional relationships, with scores to settle and targets to achieve. Elena Weaver, in her skimpy dresses and bright jewellery, exuded intelligence and sexuality. Until someone, lying in wait on the bank of the River Cam, where Elena went running every morning, bludgeoned the young woman to death.Ĭalled into the rarefied world of academia, Inspector Thomas Lynley and his. While his past sins make him neurotically dedicated to Elena and blind to her blacker side, present demons drive him toward betrayal.Elena Weaver, in her skimpy dresses and bright jewellery, exuded intelligence and sexuality.

What's more, Elena's father, a Cambridge professor under consideration for a prestigious post, is a man with his own dark secrets. Each relationship the girl left behind casts new light both on Elena and on those people who appeared to know her best-from an unsavory Swedish-born Shakespearean professor to the brooding head of the Deaf Students Union. Thus, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, enter the rarefied world of Cambridge University, where academic gowns often hide murderous intentions.įor both officers, the true identity of Elena Weaver proves elusive.

Unwilling to turn the killing over to the local police, the university calls in New Scotland Yard. As for Elena, she lived a life of casual and intense physical and emotional relationships, with scores to settle and goals to achieve-until someone, lying in wait along the route she ran every morning, bludgeoned her to death.


Stephen's College-her father and his second wife each had their own very different image of the girl. While her embittered mother fretted about her welfare from her home in London, in Cambridge-where Elena was a student at St. In her clingy dresses and dangling earrings she exuded a sexuality at odds with the innocence projected by the unicorn posters on her walls. Elena Weaver was a surprise to anyone meeting her for the first time.
