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