A clever, accomplished Cambridge graduate with a good job and an attentive lover, Imogen Lester seems to have the world at her feet. But when her parents are murdered abroad while working for the Diplomatic Service, she is suddenly thrown headlong into a murky world of espionage and organised crime. When she is charged with drug trafficking, even Ben Schroeder's skills may not be enough to save her -unless a shadowy figure from Ben's past can survive long enough to unmask a web of graft and corruption. 'Murphy's clever legal thriller revels in the chicanery of the English law courts of the period.' -- Independent 'No one writes with more wit, warmth and insight about the law and its practitioners than Peter Murphy.' -- David Ambrose, playwright and novelist 'It is to the author's credit that this fiction sometimes reads and feels like a dramatic re-telling of a real event.' -- Crime Review 'Murphy paints a trenchant picture of establishment cover-up, and cannily subverts the clichés of the legal genre in his all-too-topical narrative.' -- Financial Times.