The Hotel Southern Savoy has become the reluctant host to two corpses on a single night -- and Homicide Inspector Scobie Malone knows this investigation will be a nightmare the moment he arrives. The first victim was the wife of the American Ambassador, a slaying that will certainly have international repercussions -- and worse, if the lady's dark secrets are ever revealed. But it's the second murder that strikes straight at Malone's heart. The dead man was the husband of a woman from Malone's past, a brief love long over but never forgotten. An assassin has violently blended Malone's personal and professional lives in a lethal stew of blood and memory, and there's no way the dedicated policeman's going to walk away from this one unscathed. But even Scobie Malone doesn't realize how deadly a concoction it truly is -- and by the time he does, it may already be too late.