The Cruelty of Morning

'Pick up Hilary Bonner at your peril - you won't be able to put her down' - Val McDermidA twenty-five-year old murder, a missing girl, and a fatal attraction in a small seaside town...It is the first Sunday in August 1970. Another beautiful day in a summer that is burning itself to a horrifying close. A lone swimmer, Jennifer Stone, strikes out from the shore of Pelham Bay, deep into the blue. With her eyes closed against the sun's sparkle, she floats blissfully into the rigid corpse of a young woman in a tattered red dress. The next day, a local girl disappears. She is never found, and both investigations are closed.Twenty-five years later, Jennifer, by now a Fleet Street journalist at the top of her game, returns to visit her mother's home in Pelham Bay. Upon opening the local newspaper, she discovers that the failed investigations have been reopened. Back in London, a high-flying government minister reads the same story and his world is shaken.What...