Vera

A handsome young man, a coquettish student teacher, and nothing in common between them-except that both were murdered and left with their bodies meticulously posed. As the killer begins to zero in on a third victim, DCI Stanhope finds suspects and motives mounting.

Eleven years ago, Jeanie Long was found guilty of murder, despite unwaveringly maintaining her innocence. On the strength of new evidence, DCI Stanhope must put together the pieces of a decade-old murder-and stop a ruthless killer before he or she strikes again.

As groundbreaking begins on a rock quarry in the moorlands, a local woman who had opposed the construction is found murdered. She had been pressured to sell her land to the developers but refused. When two other women with connections to the project find their own lives in danger, Vera questions what makes this quarry worth killing for.

Generally indifferent towards children, DCI Stanhope finds herself acting as caretaker for a boy whose mother was murdered before his eyes. As she unravels the deadly secrets that led to the woman's demise, Vera finds a kindred spirit in the boy-and the key to her case lying deep in his disturbed memory.

Vera Stanhope is reunited with her first mentor after his home is firebombed and his teenage daughter badly injured in the blaze. Having survived an apparent murder bid, her old friend then makes a tragic decision, leaving Vera to find out why.

What connects the murder of a well-respected social worker and a famous case in which a child was drowned by his own mother? The answer seems to lie in a book the murdered woman was writing-until Stanhope's prime suspect ends up drowned, too.