Ah, it’s an academic conference, with all the egos, the scandals, the terrifyingly petty squabbles on display. Well….perhaps not so petty. Professor Andrew Basnett has returned to his old university for a meeting of the Botanical Association, an event that should be entirely benign, except that he can’t help being just a little curious about Carl Judd, an artist who was murdered here just two years ago. And, of course, about Stephen Sharland, who’s in prison for the murder, only no one thinks he did it, not even Judd’s widow.The rumors are flying, the tongues are wagging, and then the only witness to the crime? He gets murdered, too! It’s all too exciting—no, sorry, too terrible, too terrible for words. Thank heavens Andrew Basnett is on hand to weed out the gossip and dig for the taproot of truth.