When thirteen-year-old Matthew Whately goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigous public school in the heart of Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynely receives a call for help from lad´s housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their juridiction and deeply involved in the search for child - and then, tragically, for a child killer. Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinary evil is going on behind Bredgar Chamber´s cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew´s death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds - and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making ...

---

Personen: George, Elizabeth