The new Naomi Blake crime novel
A teenage boy is found drowned in a canal, just hours after telling his mother that he has killed a man. Rob Beresford was a schoolfriend of Patrick's; in their shock and grief, Patrick and his mates turn for help to Naomi. The dead man is identified as Adam Hensel: in his mid-forties, from the other side of town. There seems to have been no link between the two, and Rob was a model student, who had never been in trouble with the police. His mother, Clara, is devastated, adamant that Rob could not have killed anyone—despite evidence to the contrary—and his friends rally around her. Naomi is drawn into the case, by her friendship with Patrick, and because the detective handling it is her boyfriend, Alec. Then a surprising alliance is formed, between Clara and Ernst Hensel, father of the dead man. It becomes clear to Naomi that there is a complex, tragic story behind the bald facts of the case, one that has its roots in the past?