Something is amiss at a small primary school in the village of Horton. A local man, Joshua Baldwin, has been sitting in his car outside the school watching the children as they play. So DI Joanna Piercy is called out to investigate. She meets with the teachers and with Baldwin and eventually decides there is nothing to worry about.

She is terribly wrong. A few days later little Madeline Wiltshaw goes missing. Joanna is distraught that she trusted her gut instinct so implicitly, that she was not more suspicious of Baldwin. The coming weeks will be a testing time for Joanna, as she desperately tries to find the child. But with foot and mouth disease ruling the surrounding countryside, Joanna’s task looks almost impossible.

Hiding from the truth brings dark and fatal consequences

Callum Hughes has been labelled a killer and a psycho. He has been labelled by the press, by his classmates and most of all by the family of the boy he stabbed. Roger Gough has been labelled a victim. He is described by everyone the police question as a sporty, funny and popular boy who was brutally murdered by Callum. At least, that’s what his friends and family are saying. But things are rarely so black and white.

When Callum is found dead in his cell just two days after his arrest, it is accepted that he killed himself. But the coroner, Martha Gunn, dares to dig a little deeper, unravelling a truth that is far more disturbing and distressing than anything the papers could have made up. She is determined to solve the mysetery and reveal the truth behind the destroyed lives of two very different boys.