You'd know if someone close to you was capable of lethal violence, right?Dead wrong.Accused of grassing up a fellow officer and driven brutally out of home and job, Grace Fisher is thankful to survive some dark times and find haven with the Major Investigation Team in Essex.One female student is missing, last seen at a popular bar in Colchester. When a second student, also out drinking, is murdered and left grotesquely posed, the case becomes headline news.Someone is leaking disturbing details to a tabloid crime reporter. Is it the killer? Or a detective close to the case?With another victim, and under siege by the media, the murder enquiry hits a dead end. The review team brought in to shake things up is headed by Grace's old DCI. Who is going to listen to her now?

Who pays the price once tragedy strikes? In a small French town, Leonie is intrigued by a withdrawn Englishman who calls himself Patrice. He lives in a house inherited from his grandmother. He has no wife, no child, and refuses ever to get inside a car. Patrice tells Leonie little about his past, but she's certain her love will heal his emotional scars. Too late, she discovers that, five years before, Patrice was living in Brighton. He was called Patrick, and he had a wife and son. Until, one hot summer day, a moment of fatal forgetfulness changed his life forever.