Exploring a foggy Wiltshire hill path, a walker hears a distant scream and calls the police, but the attending officers find nothing. Two days later, a farmworker comes across a woman's body, her head bashed in. The victim is quickly identified as Bridget Kirkbride, who lived alone in a small cottage in a pretty nearby village.Detective Sophie Allen is called in. It's her first major case as head of the newly-formed Wessex Serious Crime Unit - and she's under pressure to get a quick result.Bridget was a mainstay of village life, always ready to help out her neighbours. No one has a bad word to say about her.So who killed her?Bridget had a fiftieth birthday party the week before, which many of the villagers attended, including her supposedly devoted son, Grant. He has now disappeared without trace.Then a body is pulled out of a reed bed in the River Severn.Sophie and her team are in a race against time to uncover the truth before anyone else pays the ultimate price.