There's a snake in the grass at Innocent House -- Peverell Press's elegant home on the Thames -- and it was found wound around the neck of the Press's cold-blooded managing director, Gerard Etienne Etienne's death leads Dalgliesh to question the late publisher's long list of enemies, from most of Peverell's staff to Etienne's former lover Frances Peverell to disgruntled former Peverell author, Esme Carling. Motives abound -- and a new victim surfaces.
Roy Marsden
Adam Dalgliesh
Lizzy McInnerny
Kate Miskin
Carolyn Pickles
Miss Blackett
Cathryn Harrison
Claudia Etienne
Rowena Cooper
Mrs. Demery
Sylvia Syms
Esme Carling
Ian Bannen
Gabriel Dauntsey
Amanda Root
Frances Peverell
Jonny Coyne
James de Witt
Raymond Gérôme
Jean-Philippe Etienne
Brooke Kinsella
Daisy Reed
Tim Dutton
Daniel Aron
Gabrielle Lloyd
Agnes Clements