Book Description
On the day Lizzie came back from the dead, the police and her
family and neighbors had already begun to search for her
body. She had been missing for three days. Never an
articulate child, between her confusion and amnesia she could
not plausibly describe where she'd been or why she'd been
away. Soon after, a convicted pedophile is released back into
the community, adding to the already heightened fears of
parents in the Muriel Campden Estate where he lives. Then the
child of a wealthy executive disappears, and not long after,
a suspect in the kidnapping is found stabbed to death.
Chief Inspector Wexford is charged with solving the
mysterious disappearances, protecting a pedophile, and
catching a killer. As he searches for connections, he finds
himself focusing on domestic violence. His daughter, Sylvia,
a social worker, has come to work nearby in a refuge for
battered women called The Hide. Her marriage is also
strained, although her husband has never raised a hand to
her. Others in Kingsmarkham are not so fortunate. As Wexford
moves closer to the truth, he confronts the discomfiting
lesson that when it comes to the inner life of families,
justice is rarely as straightforward as the letter of the
law.