Forty years ago something terrible happened in Annie's new house. Annie Naden and her husband buy a remote country cottage at auction. It's the home of their own that they always wanted, but as they begin renovations, Annie discovers a satchel in a dusty old hidden cupboard. Inside are the usual schoolbooks, now over 40 years old, and a girl's diary. Among the record of day-to-day crushes and pop concerts is a secret whose terrible consequences are still resonating to this day. Detective Tom Calladine has problems of his own. A notorious villain, Vinny Costello, seems to be back in town, and the bodies soon stack up. With Calladine's loyal DS Ruth Bayliss on maternity leave, he gets in hot water with one of Costello's assistants and must also cope with an abrasive new member of the team as they seek to untangle a complex series of murders. What happened to that girl 40 years ago? And what's it got to do with the current crime wave?
