Later in the series of Cooper-Fry books than Dancing with the Virgins. Detective Constable Ben Cooper’s working re­la­tion­ship with Det. Sgt. Diane Fry has improved somewhat, with Fry now according Cooper a modicum of wary respect.

They find themselves separately in­ves­ti­gat­ing two crimes in the remote Derbyshire village of Withens: the dis­ap­pear­ance of a teenage girl two years ago and the recent murder of a young man. At the heart of local matters are the extended Oxley fam­i­ly—­sus­pi­cious, clannish, and looked down upon—and Ben must find out what they know. Meanwhile, Diane is distracted by her own private in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the long ago dis­ap­pear­ance of her own older sister.

Two strong characters and a fairly good plot, marred by an overly neat ending.