Since the end of the Great War, Inspector Ian Rutledge has fought to keep memories of the trenches at bay. Unable to sleep after his sister’ s wedding, he takes a short drive. Hours later he’ s far from London. The war, which he’ s kept rigorously in check all day, overwhelms him, and he has only a vague impression of the road unwinding before him. He’ s jolted out of his nightmare when his headlamps suddenly pick out a motorcar stopped in the middle of the road, and he narrowly misses it. Standing next to the vehicle is a woman, with blood on her hands and a dead man at her feet.
She swears she didn’ t kill Stephen Wentworth, telling Rutledge that a stranger stepped in front of their motorcar and without warning fired a single shot before vanishing. Rutledge persuades the Yard to give him the inquiry, but even he isn’ t sure whether he’ s seeking justice— or fleeing the emptiness that awaits him back in London.
Probing the victim’ s background, the Inspector uncovers conflicting views of the dead man. Wentworth appears to have been well liked by most people, yet his bitter family calls Wentworth a murderer. But who, exactly, did Wentworth kill? Is his death retribution for that crime? Or has his dinner partner lied?
When a second suspicious death occurs, the evidence suggests a dangerous predator on the loose, carefully stalking his victims. But where is he?
