It's a long, hot summer in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. But the blue skies are darkened by police helicopters, and the sound of birdsong is drowned out by a full-scale search operation for a missing teenage girl.

Laura Vernon is smart, sexy and the keeper of many secrets, but now she's lying dead in a thicket in the heart of the country.

This is the first outing for Derbyshire detective duo Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, and the beginnings of a complex relationship between two of the most interestingly flawed young cops of modern crime fiction.