The poison tree

The handsome student who lived at 57 West Street died there too, his brutal murderer never brought to justice. For Terry Williams, returning to Oxford University to complete a doctorate in detective fiction, the house's macabre history simply means it's cheap. She never suspected the twisted passsions that led to the student's death would entwine around her own life. A stray cat traumatized by some past act of cruelty, a hidden cache of pornography, a close neighbor's illicit love affair . . . soon Terry is drawn into a mystery more chilling than any in her fictional studies. And back in the classroom she is uncovering a secret, erotic side to academia, where moral rules are suspended and where a tragic obsession may prove deadly for the innocent . . . or for a woman seeing too clearly into a killer's dark and merciless heart. From the Paperback edition.