It was a perfect summer. The weather was unusually warm for the dales, and Harry Steadman, who was preparing a book on the area, and his wife, Emma, enjoyed their holiday at the Ramsden Bed and Breakfast.Ten years later, the memories of that peaceful summer are shattered by Harry’s brutal murder. Inspector Banks is back, investigating a case just as confounding as his first. Who killed the kindly scholar? Penny Cartwright, a beautiful woman with a disturbing past? Harry’s editor? The shady land developer? Is it possible that young Sally Lumb, locked in her lover’s arms on the night of the murder, could unknowingly hold the key to the case?

A body is found half buried in a farmer’s field on the Yorkshire dales. Astonishingly, it’s the well-respected historian, Harry Steadman. Who would want to kill the kindly scholar? Known for his archeological studies of old Roman ruins in northern England, he didn’t seem to have an enemy in the world. At least not one who would take such drastic action and brutally murder him.This is Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks’ second major case in Yorkshire. He is certain that somewhere among the secrets he uncovers lies the one clue to the crime. But there are so many of them leading nowhere.