Short Synopsis
A well-liked, respected historian and archaeologist is bludgeoned to death and left half-buried in a field. Now it falls to Chief Inspector Banks to solve a seemingly motiveless murder—and stop a killer who's bound to kill again.

Full Synopsis
A dedicated man is dead in the Yorkshire dales—a former university professor, wealthy historian, and archaeologist who loved his adopted village. It is a particularly heinous slaying, considering the esteem in which the victim, Harry Steadman, was held by his neighbors and colleagues—by everyone, it seems, except the one person who bludgeoned the life out of the respected scholar and left him half-buried in a farmer's field.

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks left the violence of London behind for what he hoped would be the peaceful life of a country policeman. But the brutality of Steadman's murder only reinforces one ugly, indisputable truth: that evil can flourish in even the most bucolic of settings. There are dangerous secrets hidden in the history of this remote Yorkshire community that have already led to one death. And Banks will have to plumb a dark and shocking local past to find his way to a killer...before yesterday's sins cause more blood to be shed.

"A deftly constructed plot.... Robinson's skill with the British police procedural has been burnished to a high gloss." ---Chicago Tribune

"Robinson clearly takes great pains to present [the characters] in full and Langton's vocal interpretation makes them even more multidimensional." ---Publishers Weekly Audio Review

"Robinson's profound sense of place and reflective study of human nature give fine depth to his mystery." ---The New York Times Book Review

"Langton makes listeners feel right at home.... [He] delivers interior monologues and red herrings with equal finesse." ---AudioFile