Part of Inspector Banks, book 16
First published 2007
A young woman lies dead at a 1969 rock festival, stabbed so brutally that part of her heart was cut away. Four decades later, a freelance journalist new to the area dies in a vicious beating that seems to lack any clear motive. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks finds himself working a case that spans generations. The investigation pulls him back to the drug-fueled chaos of the peace and love era, where answers to the recent killing may be buried in the amplified noise of a notorious past. Banks must navigate between two different investigators from the original case: a war veteran struggling with a changing world and a rebellious cop carrying his own demons. As Banks digs deeper, the connection between a savage present-day murder and the violent end of the free love generation becomes impossible to ignore.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: dual-timeline, investigative-journalism, police-procedural
Setting: 1960s Rock Festival
Period: 1960s, 2000s
448 pages · Mass Market Paperback · William Morrow Paperbacks
Content warnings: graphic-violence, murder