Bernie Pryde is dead. To avoid the hardships of living with cancer and going through the treatment he preferred suicide. He leaves his private detective agency to Cordelia Gray, his business partner. What is Cordelia to do with it?
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A young student nurse dies during a demonstration in the Nightingale Training College – she acts as a patient, and two fellow students demonstrate intra-gastric feeding. The feed that is thought to contain milk turns out to be disinfectant, which makes Nurse Pearce’s death extremely painful. It happens in the presence of Miss Beale, the General Nursing Council Inspector – highly damaging for the reputation of the College, but otherwise it’s thought to be an ordinary murder – or even an accident – so Inspector Bailey from the local police force takes charge of the case. Only after another student nurse dies in her sleep – about a week later – the case becomes serious enough to call Scotland Yard, and Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh enters the scene.
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