Short Synopsis
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks uses his razor-sharp intelligence to uphold the law and pursue the truth, no matter how dangerous the road to justice becomes. When Banks dedicates himself to identifying a decomposing body, he opens a Pandora's box of family rivalries, secret passions, and private shames.

Full Synopsis
No one dreamed something so hideous could grow in so beautiful a place...

Many who visit the valley are overwhelmed by its majesty. Some wish they never had to leave. One didn't: a hiker whose decomposing corpse is discovered by an unsuspecting tourist. But this strange, incomprehensible murder is only the edge of the darkness that hovers over a small rural village and its tight-lipped residents, who guard shattering secrets of sordid pasts and private shames. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks knows that both the grim truth and a cold-blooded killer are hiding here, far from the city, the noise, and safety. And he's determined to walk into the valley of death to expose them both.

"Robinson excels in the depiction of character, especially in his portrait of his pleasingly fallible copper. He is steadily ascending toward the pinnacles of crime fiction." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Publishers Weekly Review