Jean heads to Loch Ness on the trail of Ambrose MacKintosh, a disciple of self-styled black magician Aleister Crowley, who owned a house above the loch. Ambrose claimed Crowley called the monster, Nessie, from another dimension. But Ambrose himself more or less invented Nessie by publishing the first "sightings" in 1933-the same year his wife disappeared in mysterious circumstances.
Soon after Jean's arrival, MacKintosh's daughter, Iris, an ardent environmentalist, is accused of causing the death of a member of an expedition searching for the monster. The expedition is headed by Roger Dempsey, an entrepreneur with a strong-willed wife-and a shady past of his own.
When Alasdair appears to investigate the death, he and Jean not only have to work together again, but also pick up their reluctant relationship where they left it.
A murder hole is the hole in the ceiling of a castle's entrance passage through which defenders could shoot at attackers. There are altogether too many murder holes, Jean tells herself, in the psychic passages of life.
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