When the bizarrely mutilated and long-dead body of a young woman is found in a ditch in Manham, an isolated and insular village in the Norfolk marshlands, it isn't just the fact that she had been a friend that disturbs Dr David Hunter He was once a high-profile forensic anthropologist and all too familiar with the different faces of death, until a devastating personal tragedy made him turn his back on his former life and career Now hidden away as a country doctor, Hunter's past is a secret he hopes will remain buried So when he's asked by the police to use his arcane skills to help track down the killer, he's reluctant to become involved Then another young woman disappears