When Andrew Cope and his ex-policewoman wife Kathy, proprietors of an unsuccessful detective agency, up to their necks in debt and on the verge of losing their home, are found dead in their fume-filled car, there are few who doubt that they have simply taken the easy way out. But DCI Lloyd knew Kathy Cope, and doesn't believe she was a quitter. Besides, where did she get all the state-of-the-art office equipment? Why was her shopping put away in all the wrong places? Even her last case is a puzzle. Just why would a member of the super-wealthy Esterbrook family have employed her? When DI Judy Hill is called out to the murder of matriarch Angela Esterbrook, Lloyd's doubts appears to be vindicated; and the Copes' apparent suicide turns out to be just the curtain-raiser on a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions . . .