Madeleine Severn is a tutor at the Garrettway School of Languages, she has a young outlook on life and is proud of her looks.

Eighteen-year-old student Paul Grigson idolises Madeleine and during a date of his own he sees Madeleine with the married Bernard Hopkins. When Bernard arranges to meet Madeleine again, he feels jealous, but like most teenagers, Paul's moods change like a chameleon's. This is a romantic triangle surely destined for disaster and death.

Simon Brett is the winner of The CWA Diamond Dagger 2014.