Dr Azor Sparks is a genius - and his genius saves lives. A celebrated heart transplant surgeon, he's set to revolutionise his patients' survival chances. He's also a pillar of the local evangelical church and a committed family man. so who could want to murder him in a dirty restaurant backyard? The answer, Lieutenant Peter Decker soon concludes, is a lot of people.

Sparks, he discovers, was obsessive, about his career, his church, his private life - and about an oddly unconventional hobby. his formerly devoted team of scientists is engaged in vicious academic battles whilst his family, not the harmonious unit they appear, is crumbling under the pressure of his death. Only Bram, his catholic priest son, seems able to stop them tearing each other apart. But Bram, Decker discovers, is someone his own wife Rina had ben mysteriously close to years before...