Originally published: London : Gollancz, 1976 under title Wycliffe and the schoolgirls.

Two very different young women have been murdered within the same week. One was a singer in a nightclub, the other was a nurse but both were strangled in their own homes in very similar attacks. The press are quick to assume there is a psychopath on the loose but Wycliffe suspects the truth may be somewhat more complex than that. As Wycliffe searches for a link between the victims his investigations take him back in time; to a school trip, an isolated hostel and a cruel joke on a lonely student. Wycliffe is forced into a race against time to track down the murderer before they strike again.