Ruth and Simon Pierce reluctantly allowed their daughter, Heather, to go on a camping trip with her best friend. She soon disappeared, her body later found in a shaft, the girl dead from a fall. The couple was divorced and Ruth remarried, soon giving birth to another daughter, Beatrice. Years later, this girl too disappeared, setting off a manhunt.
DI Will Grayson is obsessed with the case and he suspects a recently released child abuser as having abducted the young girl. He and his partner, DS Helen Walker, conduct deep investigations into all aspects of past and present crimes.
This is a police procedural at its best. John Harvey creates mountains of suspense, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader turning pages quickly. His command of language and character is flawless, and the plot impeccably constructed. The novel, 500 pages long, yet written with simplicity and economy, never bogs the reader down, and it is highly recommended.
