First published 2003
A brutal summer drought drains a Yorkshire reservoir and exposes the ruins of Hobb's End, a village flooded decades earlier to create the lake. A boy playing in the dried lakebed discovers human remains. Inspector Banks arrives to investigate what forensic experts determine is the skeleton of a young woman murdered in the 1940s. The case forces Banks to piece together events from over fifty years ago, reconstructing the victim's life and the secrets buried with the vanished town. As Banks digs deeper into wartime Yorkshire, he uncovers the dark history that led to murder in a community that no longer exists. The investigation becomes a race against time and fading memories as Banks searches for justice in a case where most witnesses are long dead.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: cold-case, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Yorkshire, Hobb's End
Period: 1940s, 1990s
Paperback · Macmillan