D.S. Bill Grant is having a bad day, and it's about to get worse.
When Bill comes home to find his wife has left him, his whole life goes up in smoke. His teenage daughters will be home in hours, expecting answers he doesn't have and a meal he can’t cook.But there's no time to fall apart. Two detectives are down with flu, and Bill is thrust into active duty on a case nobody wants - a missing teenager, a councillor's son, and all the political pressure that comes with it.
As Bill searches for the boy, he's forced to confront an uncomfortable truth: he doesn't know his own daughters any better than he understands this case. He's been coasting for years, happy with mediocrity as a detective and as a father.
Then the investigation takes a dark turn into Portsmouth's county lines network when Bill realises that the murdered boy and his daughters have more in common than he imagined. In a city where everyone's connected, some secrets refuse to stay buried. And some fathers get a second chance—if they're brave enough to take it.
Recommended for readers of intelligent British crime fiction in the tradition of Ann Cleeves and Peter Robinson.
Genre: Mystery