Detective Inspector Bill Slider has always been keen on architecture - what Atherton calls his edifice complex - and The Old Rectory is the kind of house he would give anything to own. But the dead body of Jennifer Andrews, found in a hole dug by her builder husband Eddie, rather spoils the view from the terrace. It looks a straightforward enough case but as the investigation proceeds, Slider finds, frustratingly, that nothing makes sense, and that - as in his own marriage - there is far more going on than meets the eye.