Murdered corpses aren't an everyday occurrence in the Midlands cathedral city of Lichfield. When Detective Inspector Jean Mason is called to view the bodyof a young girl found on the banks of Stowe Pool, a few minutes' walk from the centre of the city, she is shocked to recognise the victim's face.
Only the previous day she had travelled on the same train carriage as the dead girl, who had been arguing with an older man before she gave him the slip at Lichfield City station.
As Mason investigates who killed Nicola Toomey and why the murder was committed, the different conflicting clues, few as they are, begin to resemble a jigsaw puzzle more than a murder mystery.