When Sam Partlett joined the staff at the Institute of Pomology at King's Weltham, he brought nothing but discord. But it was not Sam who was found dead at the Institute, throat slashed with one of the laboratory razors.

In the close-knit scientific community, Inspector Day quietly sets to work to probe the secrets of people busy with different experiments - but has someone carried out an experiment with death?

'One of the best contemporary writers of civilised murder mysteries' The Times