In a small holiday village on the coast of Crete, Ingrid Laurie is researching a biography of the neglected linguist Alice Kober, who laid the basis for the decipherment of the ancient Cretan script Linear B, but died too young to reap the rewards of her work. While Ingrid struggles to decipher the life of the enigmatic scholar, on the outskirts of the village local policeman Yiannis Stephanoudakis discovers a bizarre naked corpse covered in honey and dead bees. When their paths cross in the course of the investigation erotic sparks fly. Mingling detective fiction and biography, modern romance and prehistoric marriage ritual, Alison Fell probes the mysteries of love and language in this intricately-crafted, luminous novel.