"[A] superior fifth Shaw and Valentine police procedural . . . Long after the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, the mystery of the human psyche remains." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) When a body is discovered beneath the waves off Scolt Head Island, the contents of the dead man's pockets lead Detective Inspector Peter Shaw to suspect an outbreak of "samphire wars": a turf battle for control of the prized sea asparagus which sells for...

Journalist Philip Dryden is shocked to be informed by police that his father has been killed in a car accident – he drowned during the fenland floods of 1977, 35 years before. At the same time, two unrelated cases are demanding Dryden's professional attention: a body riddled with bullets found hanging in the middle of a lettuce field, and a couple protesting that the local council has buried their baby daughter in a pauper's grave without permission....

An idyllic island holds a dark secret...- On a hot August day in 1994, 76 holidaymakers travel to an island off the North Norfolk coast. Only 75 return alive – a young man is murdered, the case left unsolved. Twenty years later, using state-of-the-art forensics, the DNA results of a bloodsoaked towel prompts DI Peter Shaw to summon all 75 original suspects to a mass screening, but one of them, the beautiful Marianne Osbourne, is found dead in her...

Cambridge, 1939. Wieder einmal zieht Detective Inspector Eden Brooke ruhelos durch die nächtliche Stadt. Seitdem er in Gefangenschaft gefoltert wurde, findet er keinen Schlaf mehr und leidet unter extremer Lichtempfindlichkeit. Nur in den verdunkelten Straßen fühlt er sich noch wohl - bis sich mehrere Sperrballons losreißen und eine Explosion im Stellwerk auslösen. Am nächsten Morgen wird eine Leiche am Fluss gefunden - auseinandergerissen von...

Winter, 1940. Schnee fällt. Inspector Eden Brooke streift wie so oft durch das nächtliche Cambridge. Die friedliche Ruhe wird jäh durch Hilferufe unterbrochen: In einem Sack verstaut, wurde ein kleiner Junge in den eiskalten Fluss geworfen. Brooke tut alles, um ihn zu retten - vergeblich. Brookes Ermittlungen ergeben, dass es sich bei dem Jungen um ein vermisstes Kind Irisch-Katholischen Glaubens handeln muss. Als eine Bombe in einer Fabrik explodiert...

Philip Dryden, a newspaper reporter in Cambridgeshire, England, suspects foul play when two men who were childhood friends are found frozen to death in their homes during one of the country's worst cold snaps,and his investigation ties to his own past, as well as an ongoing query into allegations of wrongdoing at a Catholic orphanage.