NO MEDALS FOR THE MAJOR: Major Johnson's army career was comfortably undistinguished and he expected his retirement to be on the same even tenor, but in the quiet community of Wiveldown the paths of a disparate group of people cross his own with devastating consequences. SERIOUS INTENT: The new occupant of The Willows does not realised that she has purchased a murder weapon along with her new home, nor is she aware that by moving in she has seriously upset the plans of a convicted killer. And that is not the only undercurrents of violence with is threatening to burst through the tranquil surface of the quiet commuter village . A QUESTION OF BELIEF: Although acquitted of a charged of rape, Philip Winter loses his job and is shunned by his family. When he disappears everyone assumes he has killed himself. But he has merely abandoned his previously orderly life and joined the drifting ranks of the anonymous homeless and, with appalling inevitability, is drawn into the violent machinations of an obsessed woman.