The first time in print for the million-copy-selling crime writer. This time, a cast of good coppers, a wily ex-detective and a shadowy, well-connected operative are brought together by an aristocratic fatality. Only there's no body, no forensics - and enemies in the highest places.

When Caroline Thorpe succeeded in casting doubt on the verdict of the inquest into her brother's death, she could not have anticipated what would follow.

Freddie was Earl Thorpe of Burnham, and as the Kings Lake detectives, headed by DCI Cara Freeman, soon begin to realise, influential people have gone to considerable lengths to cover up a potential scandal surrounding the young man's death.

Their investigation will take them from Norfolk into the capital, and from idealistic young campaigners to people at the heart of government. The stakes have never been higher for the detectives from Kings Lake Central.