In the Peak District village of Scardale, thirteen-year-old girls didn’t just run away. So when Alison Carter vanished in the winter of ’63, everyone knew it was a murder.

Catherine Heathcote remembers the case well. A child herself when Alison vanished, decades on she still recalls the sense of fear as parents kept their children close, terrified of strangers.

Now a journalist, she persuades DI George Bennett to speak of the hunt for Alison, the tantalizing leads and harrowing dead ends. But when a fresh lead emerges, Bennett tries to stop the story – plunging Catherine into a world of buried secrets and revelations.

‘One of the all-time greats – special in every way’ Lee Child

‘This book changed everything I thought I knew about crime fiction’ Belinda Bauer, bestselling author of Snap

‘Every now and then, a writer transforms the landscape of the literary canon: Val McDermid is one such writer’ Fiona Cummins, bestselling author of Rattle

‘Just mesmerizing’ Joseph Knox, bestselling author of Sirens

‘A brilliant book’ Holly Watt, award winning author of To the Lions

'From the first pages, we know we're in the hands of a master ' Jeffrey Deaver

‘Beautifully written’ Daily Telegraph

'One of the best detective stories I've read' Ruth Rendell

‘Possibly the best McDermid has written’ Sunday Telegraph