Payment in Blood

Summary

Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley is a peer, the eighth Earl of Asherton to be exact, who has disdained the traditional life of a nobleman to work for Scotland Yard. His partner Sergeant Barbara Havers, by compelling contrast, comes from a poor London suburb and believes that all of life’s problems were birthed, like deformed children, from the class system. Havers vacillates between admiration for her brilliant boss and disgust for all he represents.

It is this attitude that makes Lynley think Havers may not be the best choice for an investigation that centers on one Lord Stinhurst, producer of a new play by up-and-coming dramatist Joy Sinclair. Stinhurst has invited his players up for the weekend in the country—a remote estate in the Scottish Highlands—to hash out problems with the script. But the play’s run comes to a quick end when the housemaid discovers its creator in bed with a Scottish dirk poking through her neck.

Soon, the case will prove rife with hidden avenues of deceit and betrayal, not least of which is Lynley’s disconcerting discovery that the woman he loves was one of the weekend guests and has slept in the only room with means of access to the murder victim.