Strange things are happening in downtown Toronto. An expensively dressed corpse has been unceremoniously dumped in front of Brandy''s Restaurant. Meanwhile, the notoriously reclusive millionaire Paul Zimmerman has suddenly granted an interview to Toronto journalist Judith Hayes. And Judith becomes convinced that there is more than meets the eye to Zimmerman''s rise from penniless Hungarian immigrant to mastermind of breathtaking corporate takeovers. What secret lies behind the opulent marble pillars of his Bridle Path mansion and the white gables of Xanadu, his extravagant retreat in Bermuda? To find the answers, Judith seeks out Zimmerman''s family and the super-rich acolytes of his empire, tracking them down in Toronto, New York, Bermuda, and Paris whenever she can evade the self-righteous demands of her ex-husband and the needs of her loveable but unruly kids. Finally, she and her on-and-off lover Detective Inspector David Parr have to travel to Hungary before the pieces of the jigsaw fit disquietingly into place. The mortal sins of the title give a surprisingly lethal kick to an ingeniously executed thriller.