Near a small college campus, a student is found strangled in an abandoned barn on the outskirts of town. She s been posed to look like a painting of Hamlet s Ophelia, the scene taunting the police with messages that they don t understand. Detective Ian Carter is known as a strait-laced cop, but seeing the girl s body leaves him shaken and uncertain of where to turn—until a chance meeting with a charmingly awkward literature professor ends with her accidentally seeing, and solving, a clue left by the killer.   Professor Emma Reilly knows that the books she loves might hold the key to unraveling the killer s crimes, now that a second murder has been discovered, with the victim posed as Lady Shallot this time. However, when the murderer strikes too close to home and kills a third student, one from Emma’s classes, she realizes that the safety of her insular life might be nothing more than an illusion. She must find the strength to confront a killer who is turning