An innocent man framed. A case closed. A serial killer free to kill again. It is 1985. Detective Inspector Mungo ‘Bob’ Willis is being forced out of Avon and Somerset Police on medical grounds. His career is in tatters, his body broken, his mind shattered, and his partner—DS Lizzie Harper—dead in a sting operation gone wrong. Their last case is closed, but Bob is convinced an innocent man has been framed, leaving a serial killer cruising the A303 with impunity, free to target lone women who have broken down by the roadside late at night. The killer knows the police aren’t looking for anyone else in connection with the murders. What they don’t know is what Bob will do next. And when another woman is killed in horrifyingly similar circumstances, Bob launches his own—unofficial—investigation. Can he stop a sadistic killer before they kill again? And again…

The past left scars. The killer left clues, in this tense thriller from the bestselling DI Bob Willis series. It is 1986. Assigned to a new Cold Case Unit, retired Detective Inspector Mungo ‘Bob’ Willis has reopened the investigation into the 1962 disappearance of a nine-year-old boy. Paul Bromfield was snatched from one of the last steam trains from Evercreech Junction to Burnham-on-Sea and later found dead in an abandoned bunker. A day at the seaside turned to tragedy. And a child’s name everyone remembers. The killer has been watching—waiting for this moment. When another child vanishes and chilling messages begin to arrive, Bob finds himself caught in a dangerous game. With time running out, he must decipher clues that have been hidden in plain sight for decades; clues that point to the lasting fallout from a forgotten nightmare. The truth is still out there. And it’s not finished with him yet.