When the bodies of the Cowpers, a reclusive middle-aged couple, are
discovered brutally slaughtered -- and their teenage daughter goes
missing -- the tiny village of Nether Bowston reels in shock. And as the
townspeople mull over the first murder in a century, everyone is asking
the same question: Where is Gemma Cowper?
Just down the road from the murder scene, Alison Akenside divides her
time between cultivating her roses and reporting for the Rutland
Record. Like Gemma, Alison grew up in the village -- and knows what
it's like for a young girl whose dreams are far grander than her
prospects.
Alison searches for inside information on the murder, hoping finally to
sell a story to a national newspaper. But as the case leads her into the
darkest corners of this bucolic town, she realizes that not everything
is what it seems. And soon Alison, like the rest of Nether Bowston, will
discover what really went on behind the tightly drawn curtains of the
Cowper home -- and find out if Gemma is the victim of a madman ... or
something much worse.