Arnold Landon, whose passion for archaeology has more than once got him into hot water, finds his life disrupted by the arrival of a ruthless deputy director, Karen Stannard. Further, he is saddled with looking after sulky newcomer Syl Kirkby and pitched into the job of chairman of the Ridgeway Viking Trust, which is currently involved in controversial, and possibly shady, negotiations to fund ongoing excavations on a Viking site.

Landon has a strong feeling that he is getting caught up in other people's wars. With the violent death of a muckraking journalist who had shown more than a passing interest in Syl Kirkby's previous life and the goings-on at the Viking Trust, he realizes he is being drawn into something deadly serious - where corruption and tragedy in the past have sown the seeds for present-day murder.

Genre: Mystery