A black policeman from the Met might expect to meet some resistance, when he's transferred to a West Country seaside town. But, for Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson, it's like coming home. Not only was he at university in the area, one of the first people he bumps into is an old friend. Neil is now heading an archaeological dig at a Tudor merchant's house, and Wes has to tear himself away to meet the rest of his new team. It's all friendly faces here too - except one. But DC Steve Carstairs has "pillock" written all over him; there'll be no problem dealing with him. And, there's no time for trouble to brew, as Wes is immediately involved in a major search for a missing child. The tension is mounting when a body is found - but to Wes's relief it's turned up at the dig, and is over four hundred years old. It seems to be a tragic murder nonetheless, for the bones turn out to be of a strangled young woman and a newborn baby. But, until little Jonathan Berrisford is found, Wes has no time for distractions. But as another, more recent body is found, and the circumstances surrounding the Berrisford child's disappearance become more complex, Wes is more and more convinced that the age-old motives of jealousy, sexual obsession and desperate longing for a child are behind the crimes, ancient and modern, that he must solve soon if further tragedy is to be averted. One thing is for sure - The Met is beginning to look like a rest cure in comparison with sleepy old Devon...
