This is the tenth in Charles Todd's historical mystery/suspense series featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard. In late winter 1920, Rutledge is summoned to a seaside village on England's southeast coast, Hampton Regis, to aid Stephen Mallory, who fought with him in WWI. Mallory is accused of beating Matthew Hamilton into a coma, the suspicions arising from a love triangle of Mallory, Hamilton, and Felicity, wife of the latter but fiancee of the former before the war. When Hamilton disappears from his sickbed and his doctor's wife is found murdered nearby, the mystery deepens and the investigation escalates.

The atmosphere of the coastal village is almost a character unto its own. Todd does his usual excellent job of presenting historical details from this period in English history, never allowing the details to overwhelm the plot, but rather using them to illuminate characters, their behaviors and motivations. As always in this series, it is Rutledge himself who drives the story and sustains interest, and the mystery of who killed Hamilton and the doctor's wife is not easy to unravel. Rutledge's combination of strength and vulnerability is irresistible. May he solve the crime and successfully banish Hamish's ghost.