Publisher's Weekly
Inspector Luke Thanet and sidekick Sergeant Mike Lineham ( Dead By Morning ) score another hit in Simpson's 10th English procedural. Artist Perdita Master's critically ill mother is in the hospital when Perdita tells her jealous husband that she is filing for divorce. After he follows her to her parents' home, she escapes to an old schoolmate's, where she agrees to act as temporary nanny. The friend returns to find Perdita killed, a plastic bag over her head. Who besides the husband could have wanted Perdita dead, Thanet wonders, and discovers that her possessive mother-in-law and her lover's wife also had motives. Meanwhile, Thanet's home life is in turmoil with his daughter's departure for London and his mother-in-law's heart attack. Fans of Simpson are sure to enjoy this layered, thought-provoking tale.

Library Journal
When Britisher Simpson's Inspector Thanet and Sergeant Lineham bounce theories off each other, their investigations never fail. They have several suspects to clear this time, after wealthy barrister Vanessa Broxton returns home early unexpectedly to find her children's temporary nanny murdered. Thanet and Lineham narrow the possibilities to the woman's estranged husband, her lover, her lover's wife, and so on, working swiftly through proper police procedure. Simpson writes with efficient panache, introducing the Kentish village setting, the police, murder, and principals in quick order. This is an absorbing mystery.