One child dead. Another missing. The village has seen this before.

On a warm evening in late summer, best friends Raymond and Cara camp out overnight in the garden. By morning, Raymond is dead and Cara is missing.

DI Rita Cannan is called home to the sleepy seaside town of Green-on-the-Sea to investigate Raymond’s murder and try to find Cara—alive. But the case carries eerie echoes of another girl’s death that rocked the close-knit community, decades ago. If there’s a connection, if history is repeating itself, who knows more than they’re letting on? And how far will they go to cover their tracks?

There are only so many lies a small town can hold and when everyone is a suspect, Cannan has nowhere to turn. To discover the truth, she must confront her own past. But can she do so in time to uncover the identity of the murderer and find Cara—before more innocent lives are lost?