This book assumes that you want to learn how to write better. Not that you are especially cheerful about it, mind you—few people like tasks that have no clearly defined beginning and end and for which progress is so hard to measure. But in my experience, most students really do recognize the need to improve their writing skills. Their attitude is usually a kind of resigned willingness. If you have that resigned willingness, you are on solid ground. “Writing is an important skill”—you’ve heard the cliche countless times. And like so many clichés, it just happens to be true.
Two bodies, their throats cut with brutal precision, lie in a waste of blood in the dingy vestry of St Matthew's Church, Paddington. One is an alcoholic tramp; the other, Sir Paul Berowne, a recently resigned Minister of the Crown. Dalgliesh arrives to begin his investigations.