This is the story of a series of mysterious murders that occurred rather mysteriously on one of Britain's quietest and most peaceful islands, Combe Island. Commander Adam Dalgliesh is assigned to investigate a murder that occurred in the most beautiful and popular place on the island, in The Lighthouse. Combe Island is an outpost, where rich and powerful people came to relax and escape their problems. The famous novelist Nathan Oliver was one of those people. He had the unique opportunity to come to the Island whenever he wanted, because he was born in this place. In Combe she arrives with her daughter Miranda and her editor Dennis Tremlett, who is actually having an affair that Miranda's father has no idea about. When Oliver finds out that they are a couple, he reacts angrily and tells them to leave the Island the next day. Many people on the island find Oliver to be a very unwelcome and unpleasant guest. The writer is trying to push the director of the Combe Island Trust Rupert Maycroft to ensure that he can live in a cottage where the oldest inhabitant of the island Emily Holcombe lived. He is the only remaining member of a family that owned the island for many years. It's because he said that this cottage is more suitable for a writer. The next day the writer Nathan Oliver was found dead hanging from the highest railing of the lighthouse. Pathologist Dr. Edith Glenister determines that Oliver was strangled to death before a rope was tied around his neck and his body thrown over the side of the lighthouse railing. That day when the writer was murdered there were twelve people on the island. All of them had a strong motive to kill him. Commander Adam Dalgliesh has been brought to the C......middle of paper......ok written by Oliver in which a young girl is seduced by an older man. So it was mostly a reason for Dan to kill Oliver, because that book was written about his mother. Later Kate and Smith discover that Oliver was Dan Padget's father. He also killed Adrian Boyde because the priest knew that Padgett had not told the truth about his whereabouts the day Oliver was killed. It was too risky for Dan to keep Adrian alive because, knowing his penchant for alcohol and his sense of honesty, he couldn't let him say that he might be a murderer. Before Kate and Francis can arrest Padgett, he takes a young staff member, Millie Tranter, hostage and threatens to throw her from the lighthouse. Kate bravely forces herself through a narrow window so she can open the lighthouse door. She and Benton climb to the top, confront Padgett, and Benton convinces him to surrender.