There was a hole in his chest. A big hole. A quick glance showed exposed flesh and bone, red gore. It had been an accurate shot. Truck driver Dave Shackleton senses that all is not well at Hardacre farm when he arrives to collect the morning's milk. The cows are loose and the farmers nowhere to be seen ... In the farmhouse, he discovers the bodies of Aaron Summers and his son Jack, killed with their own shotgun. Sweltering in a heatwave, Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy is now faced with solving a double murder by person or persons unknown; and when she learns that Aaron also had a daughter, Ruthie, she sets in motion a massive search to find her - either alive or dead ... 'Clear and well-crafted storytelling that pulled me in right from the start. The atmosphere of the heatwave and the claustrophobic community was beautifully done, and the lack of sentimentality in the relationship between Joanna and [her boyfriend] Matthew was fresh and entirely credible.' - Ann Cleeves. 'A masterpiece of crime fiction ... The plot - which unfolds like an origami model - is intricate, clear and faultless ... Every page of this gripping mystery deserves to be savoured.' - femaledetective.com. 'More than a match for Rendell and Christie' - Broadway Ham & High. The fifth of Telos Publishing's reissues of noted British crime author Priscilla Masters' Joanna Piercy mystery series