Chattie Cornfeld was murdered while jogging in the park. She ran her own small marketing company and lived comfortably, perhaps too comfortably for her income. At first it looked as though she was the latest victim of the 'Park Killer', but it doesn't take Slider and Atherton long to establish that someone was trying to pass the killing off as part of a pattern: only the pattern doesn't fit, this one was personal. Chattie was popular with all who crossed her path, and it was difficult to imagine she had gained any enemies.

Turning to the two most popular motives for murder - money and passion - Slider and his team's investigation turn up some puzzling anomalies in her life, not least the number of men who counted themselves as her lover and the tangled relationships of her family.
But none of the suspects can be made to fit what evidence they have, unless of course they've been mis-reading the evidence ...