Recalled from a romantic vacation with his girlfriend Helen Weeks, Tom Thorne investigates the abduction of two girls in Helen's hometown, convinced that the police have the wrong person in custody.

Arthur Bryant and John May of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit investigate when an elderly woman is found dead inside her own home with her lungs filled with river water, and they encounter a killer with a unique motive for murder.

Its been twenty five years since Tom Thorne last went to work wearing the Queens cloth but now having stepped out of line once too often hes back in uniform. Hes no longer a detective and he hates it. Still struggling to adjust, Thorne becomes convinced that a spate of suicides among the elderly in London are something more sinister. His concerns are dismissed by the Murder Squad he was once part of and he is forced to investigate alone. Now unable...