Catherine O?Neill thought it was all her fault ? the accidental death of her baby daughter and the constraint it produced between herself and her husband, a constraint exacerbated by his inability to agree with her about a worryingly sadistic streak in their teenage son, Ronald. But when Ronald is connected to a local robbery, which involves murder, Catherine comes to realize that there are some conflicts that cannot be confined to her family alone.

Master crime fiction writer John Creasey's near 600 titles have sold more than 80 million copies in over 25 languages under both his own name and ten other pseudonyms. His style varied with each identity and led to him being regarded as a literary phenomena. Amongst the many series written were 'Gideon of Scotland Yard', 'The Toff', 'The Baron', 'Dr. Palfrey' and 'Inspector West', as JJ Marric, Michael Halliday, Patrick Dawlish and others. During his lifetime Creasey enjoyed an ever increasing reputation both in the UK and overseas, especially the USA. This was further enhanced by constant revision of his works in order to assure the best possible be presented to his readers and also by many awards, not least of which was being honoured twice by the Mystery Writer's of America, latterly as Grand Master.