Book Description:

When a dying colleague urges Charles to look into the disappearance over twenty years ago of a female poet whom Charles was half in love with, he is reluctant to do so. He doesn’t think he will discover anything new, and he has no desire to rake over old emotions now that he is happily married. But the more he thinks about it, the more he believes that he owes it to her memory. At the same time, Charles is urged to direct a new student play, which is written by the boyfriend of a former movie star, who will also appear in the production. It is a play about marital discord and murder, and life soon begins to imitate art. As Charles splits his time between investigating the past and directing the future, he quickly discovers that each harbors surprise and danger.