“A suspenseful crime story that puts Ms. Cleeves in the Rendell class.”—Peterborough Evening Telegraph

“Cleeves again excels in her sense of place in this cleverly plotted psychological thriller.”—The Times (London)

“Cleeves writes with an easy directness that brings alive the tensions in a place where everyone knows everyone else and nothing can be forgotten.”—The Times Literary Supplement (London)

“Ann Cleeves has written a lot of crime novels and collected many admirers without making the kind of headlines that some less skillful authors have achieved.”—The Sunday Telegraph (London)

Detective Peter Porteous has been called to Cranwell Lake, where the body of a teenager has been discovered. After trawling through missing persons files, he deduces that the corpse is Michael Grey, an enigmatic and secretive eighteen-year-old reported missing in 1972.

Prison librarian Hannah Morton is about to get the shock of her life. For Michael was her boyfriend, and she was with him the night he disappeared. The news report that his body has been found brings back dreaded and long-buried memories from her past and begins a deadly chain of events.

Ann Cleeves grew up in the British countryside, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. After dropping out of university, she took a number of temporary jobs before going back to college and training to be a probation officer. In 2006 she won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award (formerly the Gold Dagger Award) for best crime novel of the year for Raven Black.