Shortlisted for the 2012 Crime Writers' Association New Blood Dagger for best first novel

Introducing DS Glyn Capaldi, half Welsh, half-Italian, all maverick. He's fallen from grace in Cardiff and exiled to be the catch-all detective in the big bit in the middle that God gave to the sheep. A place where nothing of any significance is meant to happen, a place where supposedly he can do little harm.

But trouble have a way of catching-up with Capaldi. Six men and a young woman disappear into the night. They don't all reappear. The ones that do are good people with a good explanation. Only Capaldi remains unconvinced.

In the face of opposition from the locals, he delves deeper and starts to uncover a network of conflicts, betrayals and depravity that resonates below the outwardly calm surface of rural respectability. D.S. Capaldi is back in the saddle.