After ten years on the Surrey Police Force as its preeminent sleuth, Detective Chief Inspector Kofi Ghazini has seen so many seemingly ordinary people commit horrific crimes, he wonders if the capacity for murder lies within everyone.

The British educated, Nigerian immigrant's dour view of humanity is proven yet again with the death of a powerful investment banker's beautiful wife. The woman died in agony after ingesting a highly unusual poison - hardly a common cause of death in her upscale London neighborhood. All the evidence points to her husband Chuck Jelleners, an abusive...