Late one night, Chief Inspector Alan Banks is summoned to the home of Chief Constable Riddle. Riddle’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Emily, has run away, and for once the chief constable is asking Banks to employ his unorthodox methods to find her. Banks tracks her down in London but discovers that she doesn’t want to be found. She is living with gangster Barry Clough and insists that she is happy in her new life. Later, when she shows up at Banks’s hotel asking for help, he is drawn deeper and deeper into the young girl’s life. Banks finds himself caught in a complex web of drugs and murder, police and politics, and fathers and daughters.

"This is crime-fiction writing at its best."
—The Globe and Mail

"From family sorrows to family tragedies, from criminal cruelty to individual courage, Robinson shows the best and worst of humans in his Inspector Banks novels. And like James Lee Burke, he’s a master of landscape writing as well."
—The London Free Press

"Fans of British police procedurals who have not yet discovered Robinson are in for a treat. His Inspector Banks series combines intricate, intriguing plots with complex characters and bleakly beautiful Yorkshire settings."
—Library Journal (starred review)