When council officer Chris Buckley is approached by an odd old man demanding help in healing a decades-old family rift, he sends the stranger away. But then the man is murdered, and the police arrive on the Chris's doorstep asking questions to which he has no answers. As Chris begins to look into the circumstances of the murder, he uncovers a deadly secret in the silt and mud of the local canals that he'll realize was better kept buried. Taking a break from his Cooper and Fry series, Stephen Booth sets this standalone thriller among the picturesque, historic streets of Lichfield in England's West Midlands.