The countryside has been ravaged by war, and the English hardly know how miserable they are or should be in their damp, muddy country. The monarchy is insecure, striving for stability. New ideas from the Continent are discussed at high table in the university city. An Oxford don is murdered, and Pears begins his chase. The novel is constructed around four narratives, each person testifying to a version of the truth, each misleading the reader.
Real figures crowd the novel, taken directly from the historical record.
These seemingly distinct occurrences are, in the end, shown to be closely related in a classic of British understated suspense. Nothing could jolt one into the intense present more quickly than moving from Pears and Lovesey to Laurence Shames. Shames has compassion for even his most despicable characters, which is surely rare these days. No one is likable. A salesman is inveigled into an offer he cannot resist, which involves moving himself and his family into a handsome mansion on Long Island and turning himself into the world's best salesman.