Includes four all-new, feature-length mysteries. From the death of a woman found on the Northumberland cliffs to the body of a fisherman pulled out of the sea, these cases prove to be some of the most difficult and emotional in Vera's career.

As disheveled and indomitable as ever, DCI Vera Stanhope leads her tightly knit team of Northumberland police through four more daunting cases. No one seems to know anything about the police officer whose body turns up in a slaughterhouse incinerator, the woman killed in a car crash meant to look like an accident, the suburban neighbor found dead in her back garden, and the teenager whose body floats to the surface of a reservoir. How will Vera break...

The central character is Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope. Who is obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons. If she's lonely she doesn't show it and faces the world with caustic wit, guile, and courage. Her trusted an dlong suffering colleague is Sergeant Joe Ashworth. Together they approach every new case with unparalleled gusto and professionalism.