In small towns, no one lets the facts get in the way of juicy gossip... Terri Rayburn is a girl with a reputation. She doesn't deserve it, but having grown up on the outskirts of Summer Hill, Virginia, she knows how small towns work. The only way to deal with vicious gossip is to ignore it. So she keeps to herself as she runs the summer resort on Lake Kissel. When she returns home from a short trip to find a handsome stranger living in her house,...

Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are called on to solve a sensitive high profile case on Combe Island off the Cornish coast of England at a time when Dalgliesh is dealing with his uncertain future with Emma Lavenham.