If Ruth had stayed on leave, none of it might have happened. An astronomer working at the Maurice Frazer Observatory, Ruth Russell is enjoying her time in Rome. That is until Charles Digham, top fashion photographer and Ruth’s lover, has his camera stolen and the thief ends up a headless corpse in the zoo park toletta. The enigmatic Johnson Johnson, in Rome to paint a portrait of the Pope, is on hand to unravel the mystery. But as Johnson and Ruth begin the search for clues it soon becomes clear that more is at stake than the secrets of a couture house… something far more deadly. AUTHOR: Dorothy Dunnett gained an international reputation as a writer of historical fiction before turning to crime writing. She was a board member of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and in 1992 she was awarded an OBE for her services to literature. She died in 2001.