When his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it's not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days.

Rebus fears the worst — and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect.

He wasn't the best father — the job always came first — but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective?

As he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast — and a small town with big secrets — he wonders whether this might be the first time in his life where the truth is the one thing he doesn't want to find...