The young women of Nightingale House are there to learn to nurse and comfort the suffering. But when one of the students plays patient in a demonstration of nursing skills, she is horribly, brutally killed. Another student dies equally mysteriously and it is up to Adam Dalgliesh to unmask a killer who has decided to prescribe murder as the cure for all ills.

'Plenty of scrupulously laid false trails, credible detectives and a totally unexpected ending.' Sunday Telegraph

'James . . . manages to invest even a simple mystery novel with a depth and intelligence that few in her trade can match.' The Times