From the prize-winning author of Richard and Judy Book Club novel, The American Boy, this is the fourth in the acclaimed Lydmouth crime series, set on the Welsh/English border in the confusing years after the Second World War.

'Andrew Taylor is a master story-teller' Daily Telegraph

From the No.1 bestselling author of The Ashes of London and The Fire Court, this is the fourth instalment in the acclaimed Lydmouth series

The Korean war rumbles in the background throughout this novel as a reporter is found murdered at the Bathurst Arms, squatters are evicted from a military camp and there are new developments in the three-year-old hunt for a missing teenager. And in spite of all that's going on, Jill Francis, a local journalist, and DI Richard Thornhill find they can no longer resist their feelings for each other.

'An excellent writer. He plots with care and intelligence and the solution to the mystery is satisfyingly chilling' The Times

'The most under-rated crime writer in Britain today' Val McDermid

'There is no denying Taylor's talent, his prose exudes a quality uncommon among his contemporaries' Time Out

"Taylor is an excellent writer" - The Times

"How skilfully he recreates the atmosphere of the time through innuendo, attitude and detail rather than dogged description... Taylor is the master of small lives writ large and, in the phrase coined in this era of surly pubs and poor food, he has carved a classic detective story which is deceptively calm and cool, but really smashing" - Frances Fyfield, Express

"'The latest of Andrew Taylor's Lydmouth series of books, in which he has so effectively created the atmosphere of the 1950s, with its genteel drabness and carefully preserved hierarchy of relationships . . . Is another satisfying read, in which the characters are as important as the events and tension develops naturally without contrivance." - Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph

"Marvellously creepy" - Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday