'Mark is a wonderfully descriptive writer' Peter James

Cumbria, 1967. Grieving the loss of her son, Cordelia Hemlock is in the village graveyard when lightning strikes a tomb, giving her a glimpse of a fresh corpse that doesn't belong among the crumbling bones. But when the body vanishes, the authorities refuse to believe her, a relative newcomer to rural and ancient Upper Denton.

Cordelia persuades Felicity, her new friend from the village and the only other person to have seen the corpse, to join her unofficial investigation. But the other villagers don't take kindly to their interference. There are those who believe the village's secrets should remain buried . . . whatever the cost.