It's the count down to Christmas and Sal Kilkenny is exhausted even just thinking about the festive season - so when she is asked to investigate a seemingly straightforward suicide, she turns the case down. But eventually persuaded, against her better judgement, to help the family trace their mothers' last hours, Sal is ashamed to realise how little the authorities had bothered to investigate and starts to have her own suspicions about the death. Why would a woman so petrified of heights choose to jump from the top of Manchester's Arndale Centre car park? Written with beautiful attention to the nuances of everyday life, Towers of Silence is an emotionally involving journey into the heart of a city hiding dark secrets.