When Debbie Fearnside, a young wife and mother goes missing, police interest is minimal. She would hardly be the first woman to abandon a tired marriage. Four weeks later, it is DCI Andrew Fenwick, back from compassionate leave, who notices the set of coincidences that should have transformed a routine missing person's case into a suspected abduction. And by then, it's too late for Debbie. With Kate Johnstone, the situation is quite different. The popular school teacher has been murdered by someone who's an expert with a knife. When a WPC on Fenwick's team establishes an old connection between Kate and Debbie, the picture starts to change. It's more vital than anyone realises that they discover why the two cases are linked, for the killer has only just begun to take revenge for a long-forgotten death. And he is planning a cunning and spectacular finale that will put many lives at risk. Fenwick is caught up in a desperate race against time to find the murderer before he completes his bloody vendetta. As the death toll mounts, Fenwick stares failure in the face - unless he can draw the killer out of the shadows and into an unconventional and highly dangerous trap with the ultimate bait.