When Alex Duggins comes across a terrifying scene at the site of a new housing development, once again she is drawn into a case of brutal murder. A new year arrives and winter holds Britain's Cotswold Hills in its icy grip once more. But it's the construction of a new housing development that's causing the residents of Folly-on-Weir most concern. As she passes the site late one afternoon, pub owner Alex Duggins is confronted by the terrifying scene...

Suave, smart, and somewhat strange, Raphaël Balthazar can make the dead speak like no one else. As a forensic pathologist in Paris, he works with chief inspector Hélène Bach to solve the city's most disturbing crimes. But there's one case that continues to haunt him, the murder of his wife over a decade ago.