M CLEMENT HALL

The author describes the difficulties experienced in working in the University of Hue, Central Viet Nam, in the period shortly before the Tet offensive.

Martin, surgeon on the tournament circuit at the end of the twelth century becomes surgeon to the leaders of the Fourth Crusade which was diverted by the Doge of Venice away from their intention of taking Jerusalem from the Muslims to taking Constantinople from other Christians. Apalled at what has been done, Martin seeks to make amends.

A young female student of anatomy, Lam, on her first day in the dissection room, encounters a cadaver of a young woman which for administrative reasons is taken away. Several months later she is given a head to dissect, and recognises who must have been the head's former owner. Initial interest is purely anthropological, but soon becomes forensic when the possibility of unnatural death is raised. The police do not follow this through, and Lam determines, despite threat of career ruination, she must pursue an investigation herself. Ultimately her efforts are rewarded by the forensic conclusions.