Eighteen years ago, Billy Peters disappeared. Everyone believes he was murdered- Arnold Avery, a serial killer admitted killing six other children. But Billy's mother is convinced he is alive. Determined to bring closure to the family , Steven, a grandson, is digging holes all over the moor to find his uncle's corpse. Then in a school lesson he pens a letter to Avery in jail asking for help. So begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game.

"An English manor home, an unsolved mystery, too many suspects to count -- It's the perfect holiday for romance novelist Sara Medlar. After solving two murder cases in their hometown of Lachlan, Florida, Sara Medlar, her niece Kate and their friend Jack need a change of scenery. Sara arranges for them to visit an old friend of hers in England. Upon arrival at Oxley Manor, a centuries-old estate that has been converted to a luxury hotel, Kate and Jack...

Chief Inspector Wexford's sixteenth case centers on a teenaged African girl, the child of a prosperous doctor, who is found in a shallow grave in her quiet English suburb.