They make an oddly effective team -- Inspector Douglas Quantrill, the old-fashioned country copper; and his deputy, Martin Tait, stuffed with the latest in policing theories and techniques, and with a sharp eye for both the ladies and the main chance. That eye gets wider when Quantrill's young daughter comes home to recover from a bad break-up, but Tait's attention soon shifts to Jasamine Woods, a seductive romance-writer. Alison Quantrill may be pretty, but she's no match for Jasamine's urbane sophistication. In a fit of masochism -- and hoping, perhaps, that some glamour will rub off -- Alison takes a job as Jasamine's secretary, and thus is in the house when her employer is brutally murdered. For the moment, at least, shock shuts Alison's mouth, but Tait and Quantrill find no shortage of potentially motivated suspects. Jealousy, resentment, white-hot rage...Jasamine Woods, it seems, inspired a lot more than lust among her nearest and dearest.