The City of Dreaming Spires is having its darkest nightmare as DCI Alex Lovegrove and DS Fionnuala McGrath chase a killer set on bringing human sacrifice to the cloisters of an Oxford college.

DCI Alex Lovegrove is disillusioned. He’s in charge of the murder squad, yes. But the murder squad in Oxford. A city of 150,000 people that manages four murders in a busy year. Midsomer would get through that in a single episode. Inspector Montalbano would think he was having a quiet week. The CSI team wouldn’t even bother turning up to work. What could you honestly do with a city that only has four murders per year? Luckily for Lovegrove and his partner DS Fionnuala McGrath, help is at hand. A secret society dedicated to the goddess Ištar is planning to make human sacrifice fashionable again and they’re doing it on St Aldate’s police station’s doorstep.

Can Lovegrove and McGrath catch the killer or is Oxford about to see a murder spree that will make Old Testament carnage look like a walk in the University Parks?