From the author of APPLE TREE YARD, now a major BBC drama starring Emily Watson The last thing anyone would expect in a small, rural village is murder - let alone the horrific double murder of a respectable middle-aged local couple.During one of the hottest summers England has ever seen, the two are brutally stabbed to death.Their teenage daughter is missing. Alison, a young local reporter, is asked to cover the murders.But it isn't long before it emerges that she has one or two dark secrets of her own - secrets in her past even she is not aware of...