As he drove his chief down to Kidlington, Lewis returned the conversation to where it had begun. 'You haven't told me what you think about this fellow Owens -- the dead woman's next-door neighbour.' 'Death is always the next-door neighbour,' said Morse sombrely. The murder of a young woman... A cryptic 'seventeenth-century' love poem... And a photograph of a mystery grey-haired man... More than enough to set Chief Inspector E. Morse on the trail of a killer. And it's a trail that leads him to Lonsdale College, where the contest between Julian Storrs and Dr Denis Cornford for the coveted position of Master is hotting up. But then Morse faces a greater, far more personal crisis...

The thought suddenly occurred to Morse that this would be a marvellous time to murder a few of the doddery old bachelor dons. No wives to worry about their whereabouts; no landladies to whine about the unpaid rents. In fact nobody would miss most of them at all... By the 16th of July the Master of Lonsdale was concerned, but not yet worried. Dr Browne-Smith had passed through the porter's lodge at approximately 8.15 a.m. on the morning of Friday, 11th July. And nobody had heard from him since. Plenty of time to disappear, thought Morse. And plenty of time, too, for someone to commit murder...

A year after the murder of Mrs. Yvonne Harrison at her home, the CID are still baffled. Morse refused to become involved, even after new evidence and a fresh murder arose. Sgt. Lewis's loyalty to Morse turns to distress as his own investigation suggests Mrs. Harrison was no stranger to Morse. This title is the finale to the Inspector Morse series.