Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is faced with his most perplexing case yet—a murder with no body, and a killer who can only be a ghost—in this 2022 installment in Charles Todd's long running series, after A Fatal Lie. In the spring of 1921, Rutledge is sent to a village on the sea-battered Essex coast, where stands Benton Abbey, a grand manor with a storied past. The lady of the house claims she saw a violent murder, yet there is no body, no blood. Further, she insists the killer was Captain Nelson, a man who died during the war. Everyone thinks the grieving Lady Benton has simply lost her mind, but Rutledge finds her as sane as he is. And then another death follows.

"Excellent … Todd has rarely been better at creating a creepy atmosphere to enhance [a] nuanced exploration of human darkness."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)