Inspector Khan of the Cambridgeshire Constabulary investigates the murder of a serpent-tongued Cambridge professor whilst fending off the romantic overtures of an interfering local reporter. An escalating cat-and-mouse game develops between the police and a murderer who cannot control his impulses. It leads to a dramatic and humourous denouement in Berlin. This is a classic English murder mystery with the twist that the chief detective is a first-generation, well-educated, South Asian Muslim, who effectively exploits the often stereotypic response of others to him to benefit his policing.