Originally written some time ago but barely dated as Val McDermid says in her introduction. The main clue is the complete almost complete absence of mobile phones and a reliance on land lines and phone boxes! Harry Devlin is an inquisitive Liverpool solicitor and one of his larger than life clients' wife going missing, casting suspicion that he might have bumped her off. Meanwhile a serial rapist, nicknamed The Beast, is roaming around Liverpool and may perhaps been involved in the wife's disappearance. Clever plotting, a likeable central character and real life Liverpool/Wirral locations make this a good read with a clever twist in the plot which I didn't spot. ( )