A doctoral student lies dead at the foot of a Collie fire trail in the pre-dawn cold. The wallet in his pocket says one name. The body says another. When the body in the bag is the wrong body, the case becomes the case.
Two hours north, Dr Alex Moreton ? Classics lecturer, mezzo-soprano, friend to the owner of the Scholar's Table and a wise silver grey tabby cat called Virgil ? opens an encrypted message from a campus librarian who has been counting. Seventy-three papers. One primary author name on every one and a computer platform built to make a particular kind of fraud defensible.
The Meridian Order has been placing people in positions of quiet influence for nineteen years. Detective Inspector Rachel Quinn ? Alex's friend since they were six ? is about to read it differently. So is Alex.
