In Britain, Chief Inspector Wexford hunts for eco- terrorists who abducted five people, including his wife. They threaten to kill them unless the government halts the construction of a highway through scenic countryside.

Contents: A pair of yellow lilies -- Paperwork -- Mother's help -- Long live the queen -- Dying happy -- The copper peacock -- Weeds -- The fish-sitter -- An unwanted woman.

Over the years there have been several unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town of Kingsmarkham, and Wexford (as a young policeman) quietly suspected that the increasingly prosperous Targo -- van driver, property developer, kennel owner, and animal lover -- was behind them. Now, half a lifetime later, Inspector Wexford spots Targo back in Kingsmarkham after a long absence.

"A female Vicar named Sarah Hussein is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham Vicarage. The gossipy cleaning woman who discovers her body, Maxine, happens to also be in the employ of retired Chief Inspector Wexford and his wife. When detective inspector Mike Burden calls him, Wexford, intrigued by the unusual circumstances of the murder, leaps at the chance to tag along with the investigators. A single-mother to a teenage girl, Hussein was a woman...