D.I. Lowen faces insufferable odds. No one took much notice of the little old spinster Emily Dresden - until the day she was found stabbed to death in a country graveyard. From the outset, Detective Inspector Joanne Lowen keeps a bizarre clue to herself: an unbelievable insult written in blood-red lipstick on the victim's forehead. Lowen is soon made aware that there was much more to the elderly recluse than anyone could have ever imagined. For a start, what was she doing with a revolver and state-of-the-art electronic surveillance equipment? And how are the Government and British Intelligence involved? With suspects including a vicar with a shady past, a doctor feared to be a mass murderer and an old flame of Emily's, D.I Lowen is in for a shocking revelation.