It looks and sounds like a traditional Christmas scene - a log
fire, brightly decorated tree, classical music on the stereo. But
appearances can be deceptive. Caroline Hartley, the beautiful young
woman lying on the sofa, has been brutally murdered. For Chief
Inspector Banks, the former Londoner who is finally beginning to
feel at home in Yorkshire, the case is new but the emotions it
evokes - anger, outrage, a sense of loss - are familiar. Who was
Caroline, and how did she come to be murdered on a snowy evening
just three days before Christmas? Alan Banks and Detective
Constable Susan Gay find a multitude of suspects as they begin to
uncover the unusual and disturbing past of an intensely private
woman for whom secrecy was a way of life. A suspenseful tale of
family secrets, hidden passions, and desperate violence from a
celebrated master of mystery.
