The blind former Detective Inspector investigates a teenage boy's baffling confession of murder in this gripping British mystery by "a major talent" (Val McDermid).

When popular high school student Rob Beresford comes home crying and covered in blood, his mother, Clara, can't believe the boy's shocking admission: "He's dead. I killed him." Nor can she fathom that only hours later her son's body would be found drowned in the English Midlands. An open-and-shut case of murder/suicide? To ex-Detective Inspector Naomi Blake and her boyfriend, DI Alec Friedman, there must be more to the story. Why would a model student stab a complete stranger to death, openly confess to the crime, then fling himself into the canal?

The answers aren't at all what Naomi expects. Especially after an unlikely alliance develops between Clara and the father of the dead man—and the sordid tragedies from the past come to light.