When Deborah St James seeks refuge from the rain and her own sadness in the National Gallery, she does not expect to find herself confessing her anguish to an Anglican priest, Robin Sage. Still less to be doing so as they contemplate Leonardo's cartoon of the Virgin and Child with St Anne, wondering why - yet again - poor Joseph should have been excluded.
Far more shocking than confiding in a stranger is the discovery, just a few months later, that the Reverend Sage is dead - from accidental poisoning. But as Deborah and her husband, Simon, soon realise, the Vicar's death was far from straightforward. As their suspicions grow, they turn to their old friend Lynley, on leave from Scotland Yard, and together they begin to search for the truth.
'Missing Joseph' is a brilliant examination of the power of parental love, a power which overrides all other considerations, all other loves and loyalties, but which can only end in tragedy.
