"Three widely separated households -- one in Scotland, one in the north of England and one in the south -- have known the pain of losing a loved one; losses which, over the years, have shaped the characters of those left behind. Gradually, however, they each come to realize that those deaths might not have been as they seemed, adding doubt and uncertainty to their grief. It takes the death of a stranger in suspicious circumstances to untangle threads that will draw these families together in ways they could never have imagined, with results that are far-reaching -- and fatal."--publisher.