When Karen Drew is found sitting in her wheelchair staring out to sea with her throat cut one chilly morning, DI Annie Cabbot, on loan to Eastern Area, gets lumbered with the case. Back in Eastvale, that same Sunday morning, 19-year-old Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled in the Maze, a tangle of narrow alleys behind Eastvale's market square, after a drunken night on the town with a group of friends, and DCI Alan Banks is called in. Banks finds suspects galore, while Annie seems to hit a brick wall - until she reaches a breakthrough that spins her case in a shocking and surprising new direction, one that also involves Banks.

Then another incident occurs in the Maze which seems to link the two cases in a bizarre and mysterious way. As Banks and Annie dig into the past to uncover the deeper connections, they find themselves also dealing with the emotional baggage and personal demons of their own relationship. And it soon becomes clear that there are two killers in their midst, and that at any moment either one might strike again.

Let Sleeping Bodies Lie At first, she appeared to be a remnant of the Festival: a beautiful girl with a painted cornflower blooming on her cheek, sleeping off the excess of the night before. It's the summer of 1969, but it seems not all the revellers had peace and love on their minds. Four decades on, Chief Inspector Banks is called from his dinner to a far bloodier scene. A stranger has been murdered in a remote village, and before Banks can begin to uncover the motive he must first identify the body. Nothing is straightforward in this case, and soon he is on a path of discovery that leads back into the past: to a murder in the summer of 1969 that everyone had thought long-since solved…

Two missing boys. A stolen bolt gun. One fatal shot. Three ingredients for murder. When DCI Banks and his team are called to investigate the theft of a tractor from a North Yorkshire village, they're far from enthusiastic about what seems to be a simple case of rural crime. Then a blood stain is found in an abandoned hangar, two main suspects vanish without a trace, and events take a darkly sinister turn. As each lead does little to unravel the mystery, Banks feels like the case is coming to a dead end. Until a road accident reveals some alarming evidence, which throws the investigation to a frightening new level. Someone is trying to cover their tracks - someone with very deadly intent . . .