eat for mystery lovers" (USA Today), the quiet Little Vestry of St. Matthew's Church becomes the blood-soaked scene of a double murder, and Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh faces an intriguing conundrum. - Part of the bestselling mystery series that inspired Dalgliesh on Acorn TV

"A first-rate detective novel, but it goes beyond that fine achievement to another realm.... An intricate, compassionate novel." --The Boston Globe

How did an upper-crust Minister come to lie, slit throat to slit throat, next to a neighborhood derelict of the lowest order? Challenged with the investigation of a crime that appears to have endless motives, Dalgliesh explores the sinister web spun around a half-burnt diary and a violet-eyed widow who is pregnant and full of malice--all the while hoping to fill the gap of logic that joined these two disparate men in bright red death....