**Would you commit murder to win the Nobel Prize? Michael Caplin would.** Caplin has been working in a corporate research establishment as a metallurgist; and has been close to a breakthrough in ultra hard materials for some time. But his long held ambitions for acclaim and scientific recognition are thwarted by the fact that working in a corporate environment means he is prohibited from publishing his work.>br>His employers make this stipulation because research outcomes could freely benefit competitors if the results were made public. Caplin knows that if he is ever to achieve his ambitions he must work on his current, and most important research programme, in secret. Secrets will be uncovered, vendettas will be revealed and the dark side of a killer’s mind will make itself known