Murder Must Be Witnessed

When a gifted, popular extremely decent young man is shot dead in front of a large crowd of people attending a pageant Detective Inspector Mark Hobson is confronted with the most difficult case he has ever had to solve; and when weeks later a beautiful and talented young woman suffers a similar fate the pressure on him catch a ruthless killer becomes intense.

All he knows for sure is that the murderer used an ancient British standard issue army rifle to carry out both crimes, and that he has deliberately decided to slaughter his victims before large crowds of onlookers.

As Hobson investigates further he becomes convinced that both murders have their roots in history, and that in a madman's eyes the "perfect son" and "perfect daughter" have become blood sacrifices to make atonement for other peoples' sins.

Yet more deaths follow, and stories of rejection and revenge, rape and deception, and hypocrisy and truth all intermingle with each other and with the past before a solution to these terrible crimes is finally arrived at.