- When College Dean Phil Beskin is found bludgeoned to death with a rock in local woodland, Lewis and Hathaway are called in to investigate.
- Lewis and Hathaway are called to investigate a body in some woodland. But realising three more murders are to follow, the team must hurry to catch the killer, before they happen. Hathaway is struggling to cope with his father's illness, as he begins his search to find out who he was before the dementia kicked in.
- Lecturer Phil Beskin, having given a talk on mystic Charles Williams, is murdered and alongside the body is the first of four stages of an alchemic process, the Magnum Opus. Lewis is surprised that Phil had a tattoo, identical to that of tattooist Jay Fennell, who, like Wouter Eisler, a lecturer in alchemy, was present at the lecture. Beskin had argued with student Nate Hedesan, who had provided a false alibi, thanks to fellow student Sam Langton - who is having an affair with Beskin's sister Carina. Hathaway establishes a link between Williams and tattoos but when a second murder occurs the police anticipate that, according to the Magnum Opus, two more will follow.—don @ minifie-1
- A college dean is murdered in what appears to be ritualistic fashion. The victim's closest friends all appear to be fans of poet Charles Williams, one of the famed Oxford Inklings. Lewis and Hathaway's investigations also lead them to suspect a link to the practice of alchemy. Could the Williams and alchemy ties lead them to the perpetrator?—grantss
- Lewis and Hathaway visit a crime scene in the woods. Blunt trauma to the back of the head, and the man was buried and then covered with maggots. A mystical card is found hanging near him. The man is Phil Beskin, a lecturer who had given a talk on mystic Charles Williams the previous night. They find Gina Doran's phone, with a message to Beskin suggesting she was going to commit suicide.
Hathaway visits Beskin's wife Grace and his sister Carina. They tell him that Beskin liked to go out drinking with his students. One of them was Nate Heddison, whom he had argued with recently. Wouter Eisler, another lecturer in alchemy, was also there and had been involved in the argument.
Lewis and Maddox visit Gina Doran, who had not apparently been in the woods. She is badly hung over. Her boyfriend, Nate Heddison, was not there and his friend Sam Langton alibis him. She has blood on her shirt. Later it is revealed that Langton is having an affair with Carina Beskin.
On the autopsy table, the realize Beskin has a tattoo of an odd symbol. Lewis and Hathaway visit a tattoo artist, Jay Fennell, to identify the symbol. He claims not to recognize it, but to their surprise they find that Doran works in the shop. Fennell had been at Beskin's lecture. Next, they visit Eisler. He knew about Beskin's murder from Doran, and explains that the ritual was only the first in a series of four in an alchemic process known as the Great Work, or Magnum Opus. He dedicates all of his books to someone named "Chen." Lewis and Hathaway suspect that three more murders are possible. Forensics finds that the blood on Doran's shirt is entirely her own.
Lewis confronts Heddison, and he admits to have been out clubbing the night of the murder. Hathaway visits Grace Beskin in the library. She doesn't think her husband was sleeping with Doran, and she wasn't aware of Beskin's tattoo. Hathaway realizes that Eisler could not have heard about the murder from Doran, and forces him to admit that Grace had told him Beskin had been killed. They check Heddison's alibi and find that he was at an S&M club.
Lewis notices that Fennell actually has the same tattoo on his chest but Fennell denies knowing anything about it other than it was an interesting design. Annapurna Kennison also has the same tattoo. She becomes the star of a ritual of forgiveness. Hathaway finds the symbol in a Charles Williams book, and skips a visit with his father to study it further. He finds that the tattoo was a symbol of the Companions of Coherence, a ritualistic group, which were also something mentioned in Beskin's emails. Heddison is still lying - the club had closed early that night. They go to the club and verify that he had left at midnight with Doran's phone.
The next morning Annapurna Kennison is found dead and bound in the river - the second ritual murder. She had had a drink with Jay Fennell the night before and had planned to walk home.
Visiting Heddison again, they find he had been booted from a linguistics course with Annapurna Kennison. Doran alibis him; she also has a stamp from the S&M club. She and Heddison plan a punting date. Hathaway and Lewis find blood on a boat outside the Kennison's home. Dax Kennison admits to having a matching tattoo and that he is a Companion. They suspect that all of the Companions may be under attack, but Dax Kennison says Carina is not interested in the Companions.
Carina Beskin had been a star pupil until a few years ago. She reveals that there had been a fallout over a ritual. The blood on Kennison's boat belonged to him. Maddox finds that Chen is a Hebrew word meaning Grace, therefore Eisler's books are actually dedicated to Beskin's wife. Jay Fennell calls Carina Beskin insisting that they speak. Lewis confronts Eisler about the dedications, and he admits to an unrequited love for Grace, but denies knowing Annapurna at all. Grace also denies an affair with Eisler. Meanwhile, Doran is stood up by Heddison, who went to visit a library.
After meeting with Carina, Fennell decides to call the police, but before he can speak to them he becomes the next victim. This time there was no sign of a struggle or any obvious signs of a ritual. Dax Kennison reveals that Annapurna had a secret in the past as well, but he doesn't know what it was. He shows Hathaway the ritual they had performed. Heddison breaks up with Doran over someone at the club. Angrily, Doran reveals she had not seen Heddison at the club at all. Forensics show that Annapurna was in the Kennison's boat. They question Carina again on what happened eight years ago but she admits nothing.
Fennell was killed with a needle straight through the tattoo into the heart - he was killed ritually. Hathaway visits his old teacher who tells him that he has been in contact with Hathaway's father. He also tells Hathaway of a conference that occurred eight years ago on alchemy. Maddox finds there had been a car accident at that time that Carina, Annapurna and Beskin had been involved in, although it was listed as an accident. An alchemist named Francis Fisher had been killed. Lewis and Hathaway return to Carina, and she admits she had been driving and was drunk, and that Beskin, who was below the legal limit, had claimed to be driving. She doesn't know who else knew. Maddox then finds that Fisher had two children. Suspecting that Heddison is one of them, they rush to his flat, where they find Kennison and Heddison in an embrace. Heddison is not Fisher's child, but he reveals that Sam Langton had been involved. They verify that he is Fisher's son, and find him in the midst of a ritual with Carina. He admits to killing Beskin, Fennell, and Annapurna after they had undergone the forgiveness ritual, believing that they had no right to decide they were forgiven. He does not want to kill Carina as she has never forgiven herself. Hathaway gets him to tell Carina that he forgives her, but then she realizes he must have committed the other murders. He tries to kill himself but they prevent him from doing so.
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