P．D．詹姆斯是英國當代最著名的推理小說女作傢，被尊稱為“推理小說第一夫人”。齣生於1920年的P．D．詹姆斯自1950年開始寫作，至今筆耕不輟。她已齣版近20部作品，她的大部分作品均被拍成電視劇或電影。 P．D.詹姆斯的作品曾經多次獲得英美推理小說奬。1987年榮獲有“諾貝爾推理文學奬”之稱的英國推理小說傢協會“鑽石匕首奬”終身成就奬，並受英國皇室勛封為女伯爵，1999年榮獲美國推理小說傢協會大師奬，也曾獲愛倫坡奬。P.D.詹姆斯現任英國作傢協會主席。

Adam Dalgliesh takes on a baffling murder in the rarefied world of London book publishing in this masterful mystery from one of our finest novelists. Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of impenetrable complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant but ruthless new managing director, who had vowed to restore the firm's fortunes. Etienne was clearly a man with enemies—a discarded mistress, a rejected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues, one of who apparently killed herself a short time earlier. Yet Etienne's death, which occurred under bizarre circumstances, is for Dalgliesh only the beginning of the mystery, as he desperately pursues the search for a killer prepared to strike and strike again.