Hathaway has been promoted to Inspector after an extended break from the force, and Lewis is enjoying retired life until he's asked to team up with his old colleague again.

Hathaway's murder theory has fallen apart. It might take Lewis's insight to close the case - but will his former protege listen?

When a classics scholar is stabbed to death and dumped in the Oxford Canal, Lewis, Hathaway and Maddox find themselves sorely tested by a bizarre case.

After a difficult start, Lewis and Hathaway's partnership seems to have gained some semblance of normality. DS Maddox has become a part of the team. Her abilities will be put to the test when an investigation begins on the brutal murder of an American classics student Rose Anderson Her body is hauled from the canal with a stand wound to the neck and abdomen. Suspicious soon fall on astrophysics professor, Felix Garwood who had recently broken off an affair with Rose. However, Felix was married to Rose's supervisor, Philippa Garwood. Could the jealous wife have committed such a murder?

Lewis' reputation is jeopardized when the very first case that he solved as a DI is reopened for appeal and new murders are committed with the original weapon.

Hathaway and Maddox continue to investigate the murder of Travis as the trail leads back to Lewis’s original case. The two detectives attempt to prevent another murder and Lewis sees himself isolated and alone with his reputation in jeopardy.

Lewis and Hathaway are called in to investigate the death of Reuben Beatty who works at the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychology. He has been discovered dead injected by etorphine, a paralysing agent in the offices of psychic ‘Randolph James’.

Lewis and Hobson are examining the body of murdered Vicki Walmsley when a theft of etorphine is reported by the Garsington Equine Centre. The drug was last used a year earlier on a horse that injured its teenage rider, Joshua Grace – the brother-in-law of Reuben Beatty, the first murder victim.

An embalmed body is discovered dumped by an isolated farm track. Funeral director Brian Miller identifies the body and GP Matt Whitby confirms the gentleman died of cancer.

Liam Jay is in intensive care and Lewis and Alex believe that he has information about the death of Matt Whiby and the mysterious cremation. It is revealed by Emma Barnes that Johnny Jay, Liam’s father, was at the fateful supper party and he is missing as well.

As Lewis and Hobson embark on a relationship, a former don is murdered on the night of his release from prison - crushed to death by a Jaguar Mark two.

The corpse of a missing student is discovered in the attic of a college chapel.

When a botanist accidentally digs up the body of the recently buried Murray Hawes, Lewis and Hathaway are set upon a seemingly impossible quest.

Lewis and Hathaway are drawn into a world of virtual bullying, but very real murder, when a professor is found dead after her dating video is leaked online.

When a babysitter is found dead, Lewis and Hathaway are drawn into diverse new worlds including squats, swinging suburbia, primate labs and fetish photography.

Lewis and Hathaway investigate when a controversial American academic is murdered after speaking at Oxford's Department of Criminology.

Oxford's last all-female college is holding a reunion party to say goodbye to one of its most popular professors. After a guest is found murdered, Lewis believes the killing is connected to an attack that happened at the same building 10 years ago. He turns to his former DS, Alison McLennan, to help him with the case, but it ends up taking a new twist after two more bodies turn up.

Lewis investigates when a visiting female bishop is poisoned. Then two more deaths occur, both mirroring macabre murders from Jacobean revenge tragedy.

The ethics of a questionable drug on the Oxford campus of anti-depressants calls into account the questionable judgment of a psychiatry professor.

When a local businesswoman is bludgeoned to death, it appears to be a blackmail plot gone wrong. As the body count rises, Lewis and Hathaway realize there is a decades-old secret at the heart of the case, which they must uncover to bring the present-day murders to a halt.

After a body is found on an Oxford tour bus, Lewis and Hathaway are led to Crevecoeur Hall, a sprawling Oxford estate where Hathaway spent much of his childhood.

When the master of a college is found dead at the foot of the observatory stairs, suspicion falls on all of the staff - from senior tutors right down to the scouts.

On a bank holiday weekend Lewis and Hathaway are called in when a top quiz competitor is found floating dead in the fountain of an Oxford college.

Lewis and Hathaway investigate the murder of a university friend of pathologist Laura Hobson. As more deaths occur, they realise that Laura's past may hold the key.

Lewis investigates the murder of a beautiful young Eastern European woman whose death comes straight from the pages of a popular fantasy novel.

When Lewis and Hathaway are called in to investigate the murder of a rising Oxford theatre star, they focus their suspicions on his acting colleagues.

When religious fanatic Steven Mullan is murdered, Lewis investigates celebrity atheist Tom Rattenbury and his family, who had been attacked by Mullan.

When Lewis and Hathaway investigate a murder in town, forensic evidence leads them to suspect there is a connection with the reforming of an old rock band.

When a man is found dead at the Bodleian Library, Lewis investigates a link between the death and an intruder on a local professor's property.

Lewis and Hathaway investigate a link between the murder of a professor of German history and the recent winner of a local underground boxing bout.

When an old friend of Hathaway's commits suicide, Lewis investigates a link between his death and a religious group whose members are being targeted by a killer.

A rape case appears to be solved when the chief suspect is murdered. But nothing is what it seems - and soon the upper echelons of Oxford society close ranks.

Lewis and Hathaway are thrown into a delicate case involving one of the Oxford University's most prominent figures.

Lewis comes face to face with his past in a case driven by celebrity, scheming, and dangerous sexual politics.

When an Oxford housewife is found hanged in her home, Lewis and Hathaway unearth a far darker murder case than the initial suicide verdict suggests.

Inspector Lewis investigates the death of a brilliant young maths student at Oxford University.