When Mattle Harris laughs into the soft darkness of a May night it is the last time her voice is heard. Soon the rain-swollen river sweeps her body back to Lydmouth. Mattie can't swim. Did she fall into the water? Could she have jumped?
Mattie was a waitress, a woman of little consequence. So why are some of Lydmouth's leading citizen's so anxious to establish that the death was accidental? Then the rumours begin to circulate, and with them comes another death.
As fear tightens its hold on the town, Jill Francis and Inspector Richard Thornhill can no longer avoid each other and the bitter-sweet implications of their attraction. But there are more secrets here. The living has their mysteries, as well as the dead...

Andrew Taylor's latest Lydmouth mystery confirms his reputation as one of the foremost crime writers of his generation.