Morse and Lewis investigate the death of Laura Poindexter, an American tourist who is part of an exclusive tour group visiting Oxford. Missing from her personal effects is her jewelry, including the Wolvercote Tongue which she was going to donate to the Ashmolean Museum. The pathologist determines that she died of natural causes, but Morse feels there's something not quite right. The mystery deepens when Theodore Kemp, the Ashmolean's expert on the Wolvercote Tongue, is found dead and Mrs. Poindexter's husband goes missing.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Charlie Hillian is killed on the night of his retirement party. Hillian was at one time a senior officer in Oxford and was in fact Morse's boss. He was also writing a book about his most memorable cases, including one about the unsolved death of an 8-year-old girl some 18 years ago. The suspect in that case, Frederick Redpath, was at Hillian's house the day he died and that chapter from the manuscript is missing. There are other suspects however, including Hillian's ghost writer who will now receive all of the book's royalties; a handyman who was working on the property; and Redpath's daughter, who knew the little girl who was killed all those years before. Morse comes into conflict with with a colleague DCI Dawson, who was one of Hillian's protégés, as they again look into the little girl's death.
《斯巴达克斯：竞技场之神》（Spartacus God of Arena）实际上就是《斯巴达克斯：血与沙》（Spartacus Blood And Sand）的前传，在这个Batiatus家族崛起的故事中，Lucy Lawless和John Hannah成为人们关注的焦点，他们在Spartacus成为被俘的色雷斯奴隶前就已经是Batiatus家族的优胜者
Rachel James is shot through her kitchen window while having breakfast early one morning. She was having an affair with Dr. Julian Storrs, an Oxford professor who is a candidate for Master of Lonsdale College. When her next door neighbor is also killed however, Morse determines that the shooting of James may have been in error. Morse also suspects that he may have been a blackmailer. Both Storrs an his rival for the Masters position, Denis Cornford had secrets that would make them suspects. Morse determines that several others also had things to hide and any one of them could have committed the murders.
