In the wake of a failed marriage and a misguided love affair, feisty academic Terry Williams moves to Oxford to resume her abandoned doctorate in detective fiction. Looking forward to a sleepy university town, Terry is dismayed to find that her new home was previously the scene of a savage sexual murder, and all too soon Terry finds the past returning to invade the present with horrific consequences. Terry begins to uncover the dark secrets hidden behind this quiet idyllic life--a famous neighbor involved in a bizarre sexual scandal, a star college athlete with stormy, violent passions, and a hidden cache of ardent, almost pornographic letters all suggest a mystery more brutal and elusive than any tackled by the fictional detectives she studies. And still, a killer walks the streets of Oxford, protected by the night, empowered by violence, and determined to exact a bloody revenge for a crime of passion.