The Silent Sleep of the Dying

Mark Hartmann, a consultant pathologist, has problems. Married to a barrister and the son-in-law of a judge, he should be enjoying a comfortable life, but his secret vice is gambling. Seriously mounting debts are starting to threaten his marriage. When he is asked to perform an autopsy on Millicent Sweet, a laboratory assistant, it seems a case much like any other. True, Sweet was only twenty-two when she died of cancer, but even the young are not immune to that disease. His initial findings, however, are more surprising for she appears to have died of several different, aggressive tumours. But before he can discuss this with his colleagues he is called away to a conference in Scotland, where, drunk and depressed one evening, he ends up sleeping with one of the sales reps. The consequence of this action is blackmail by a pharmaceutical company who have videoed Hartmann's excesses. They threaten to send the video to Hartmann's wife - unless he falsifies his report on Millicent Sweet's death. But they are not the only people interested in Sweet. Her father, convinced his daughter's death is the result of a laboratory accident, has contacted lawyer Helena Flemming. And when Helena's p