"...no one does the British novel of crime and manners so well."—DEBORAH CROMBIE, New York Times bestselling author

Life isn't easy for curate Callie Anson, but it's definitely interesting. Her relationship with policeman Marco Lombardi is growing warmer, although he seems to be keeping her at arms length from his close Italian family. Then her brother Peter—beloved and engaging as he is—gets a bit too close for comfort when he moves into her London flat.

Callie faces professional challenges as well. Morag Hamilton, a new parishioner, is worried about her granddaughter Alex—a lonely and isolated twelve-year-old with a work-obsessed father and a self-absorbed stepmother.

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Neville Stewart is dealing with Rachel Norton, a pregnant young woman whose husband Trevor went out jogging along the Paddington canal and never returned. Just when Neville thinks he's solved it, someone else goes missing: young Alex Hamilton.