As dusk falls, a young man staggers through a park, far from home, bleeding from a stab wound. He dies where he falls, cradled by a stranger, a woman’s name on his lips in his last seconds of life. Detective Manon Bradshaw handles only cold cases, but the man died just yards from the police station where she works, so Manon can’t help taking an interest. And as she sidles in on the briefing, she learns that the victim, a banker from London worth millions, is more closely linked to her than she could have imagined. When the case begins to circle in on Manon’s home and her family, she finds herself pitted against the colleagues she once held dear: Davy Walker and Harriet Harper.

Edith Hind, a graduate student at Cambridge University and daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family, has been missing for nearly 24 hours. Her home offers few clues: a smattering of blood in the kitchen, her keys and phone left behind, the front door ajar but showing no signs of forced entry. Manon Bradshaw’s investigation starts with Edith’s loved ones. As the search widens and press coverage reaches a frenzied pitch, secrets begin to emerge about Edith’s tangled love life and her erratic behavior leading up to her disappearance. What she discovers will have shocking consequences not just for Edith’s family but for Manon herself.