When Gabriel Ash comes across a terrified young woman fleeing a brutal attacker, he and Hazel Best are drawn into a complex and baffling investigation.

Rachel Somers, running . . . Something appalling happened in the wood. When Gabriel Ash and his dog come to her aid, she thinks she''s safe. But this is Norbold, where things aren''t always as they seem.

Detective Chief Inspector Gorman thinks this is his worst nightmare: a predatory paedophile who''s prepared to kill rather than be taken. Constable Hazel Best thinks she''s helping both the Somers family and her friend Ash, but her tendency to follow her heart rather than her orders is about to get her into trouble again. And the people of Norbold have noticed that descriptions of the attacker, sketchy as they are, fit Ash better than they fit anyone else.

With panic stalking the town, DCI Gorman needs to make an arrest before more young girls are attacked, before someone else dies, before the vigilantes who burned Ash''s shop decide to burn him too. But the parameters keep shifting, and almost none of the facts he''s relying on will turn out to be true. The solution to the mystery is more shocking, and more tragic, than even these three could have imagined.