Dave Shackleton could sense that all was not well at Hardacre farm when he arrived on his morning milking round. The cows had been let out of their field and were waiting impatiently at the milking parlour—yet there was no sign of the farmers.

But when Shackleton enters the farmhouse he discovers the bodies of Aaron Summers and his son Jack, with their abandoned shotgun propped by the door. Was this a case of murder—then suicide?

The forensic evidence suggests otherwise, leaving Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy with a far more serious case—murder by person or persons unknown. When she learns that Aaron also had a daughter, Ruthie, Piercy sets a massive police search in motion to find her—either alive or dead...