The second riveting crime novel in the Karen Pirie series, from No.1 Sunday Times bestseller Val McDermid.

Twenty-five years ago, a woman and her baby son were kidnapped and held to ransom. Catriona Grant ended up dead and little Adam's fate has remained a mystery ever since.

When a new clue is discovered in a deserted Tuscan villa – along with grisly evidence of a recent murder – cold case expert DI Karen Pirie is assigned to follow the trail.

She's already working a case from the same year. During the Miners' Strike of 1984, pit worker Mick Prentice vanished. Where did he really go? And is there a link to the Grant mystery?

The truth is stranger – and far darker – than fiction.

‘A superb mystery’ The Times

‘Val McDermid is a born storyteller’ Sunday Telegraph

‘A searing piece … McDermid orchestrates the tension with authority.' Express

‘Torture, warped psyches, unspeakable cellars: Val McDermid sends you to bed with lights blazing’ Sunday Times

‘One of the best modern writers of crime fiction … Excellent’ Scotland on Sunday