1861. Constable Faro is heading home to Orkney, pursuing a private investigation into the mysterious drowning of an ex-colleague's relative, champion swimmer Dave Claydon. Was this an accident or does Claydon's death have a sinister connection with missing artefacts recovered from the Armada galleon sunk off Spanish Cove? At Scarthbreck Faro's mother is determined to find him a wife, and this Lammastide the legend of the seal king's annual claim of a human bride becomes reality. Faro's holiday and his original secret mission turn into a nightmare. With himself as the crime suspect in a girl's disappearance, he is in deadly danger, his life threatened by circumstances beyond his control.