When Alan Parker is suddenly made redundant, he can't bring himself to tell his wife. With time on his hands while secretly and desperately looking for a job, he meets a waif-like little girl, Tessa, and her lonely, widowed mother. Alan discovers he can confide in Louise, and feels protective towards her and her daughter.
But then Tessa disappears. Alan, once utterly respectable, is now unemployed and living a life of deception and adultery. To the police, he is the prime suspect of a hideous and sordid crime.
Margaret Yorke was awarded the 1999 Cartier Diamond Dagger for her outstanding contribution to the crime fiction genre. She was a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and the author of over 50 novels. She died in November 2012.
Admirable
OBSERVER
Grasps the imagination
OXFORD MAIL
A star in our galaxy of crime writers
FINANCIAL TIMES