In a peaceful Welsh village, a boy stumbles upon the body of a drowned man, and Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent from London to find answers, in this 23rd outing, following A Divided Loyalty. By all accounts, Sam Milford was a good man and well-respected. Then, why is his death so mysterious? To track a killer, Rutledge must retrace Milford's last journey, and he uncovers a web of lies swirling around a suicidal woman, a child's tragic fate, and another woman bent on protecting her past. But where among all these clues is the motive for murder? "If there's ever been a more complex and compelling hero in crime fiction than Inspector Rutledge, I can't think of one."—Jeffery Deaver