When Carla Constanza - the face of Brazil’s leading cigarette brand for Monarch Tobacco - is found strangled in the infamous Strangler’s Wood, Barnaby and Troy not only find themselves investigating her murder, but three identical unsolved murders of innocent girls from eight years before. John Merrill, the self-loathing Marketing Director of Monarch Tobacco, is prime suspect. His watch is found near the body, clay matching that from the scene of the crime is discovered on his car and a shirt smeared with lipstick, the same colour as Carla’s, is found in his wardrobe. Moreover, both his wife, Kate and his mistress, Liz Frances, admit to his penchant for strangling them in bed...