At the same time that local police are called to the murder of a girl found strangled in an East Anglian clunch field, Scotland Yard's Adam Dalgliesh has been given a higher profile case involving the death of forensic biologist Dr. Edwin Lorrimer, chief of section at the neighbouring police laboratory of Hoggatt's and the expert witness of the title.

Divorced and involved in a tug of war for the children's custody, he is moreover having an affair with Domenica Schofield, the half-sister of the Laboratory's director, Maxim Howarth.

Eventually it emerges that his real motive for this act of spite was that Stella had once been his wife in an unconsummated marriage and he does not wish her to benefit indirectly from any money of his.

His motive had been to prevent the jealous Lorrimer from contacting his wife and telling her of Rollinson's affair with Domenica, and by this means giving her ammunition for her custody battle over the children.

Reviewing the novel's first appearance, John Leonard of The New York Times commented that "James does for a forensic science laboratory in East Anglia what Sayers did for Oxbridge and Marsh managed for the London theater world.

[5] A two-hour adaptation (split into two 1-hour segments) was co-commissioned by Channel 5 as the first episode of the second series of Dalgleish, with Bertie Carvel in the title role.