Ten years after the debut of the international bestseller The Whisperer, the challenge begins again.

The phone call to the police arrives at dusk from an isolated farmhouse, fifty miles from the city. A terrified woman's voice pleads for help. But a violent storm rages in the area and the first available patrol only succeeds in reaching her hours later. It is too late. Something perturbing has happened, something which leaves the investigators in the dark.

Just one person is able to reveal the message hidden behind this act of evil, but this person is no longer a policeman. She left her work as a missing persons investigator and withdrew from society to live an isolated existence beside a lake; her daughter Alice her only companion. Even so, when she is called upon to help with this case, Mila Vasquez cannot shirk her duty. The investigation involves her closely . . . more than she could ever believe.

It is a game and it has only just started.

Because he is always a step ahead.

"A violent storm prevents the police from rushing to the aid of a frightened woman at a secluded farmhouse and an ex-policewoman has to confront a truly sinister killer. Carrisi is a leader in the Italian crime field, and this ingenious thriller is ably translated by Gregor" - Best Summer Books, Financial Times