Chief Inspector Wexford, distracted by the possibility of flooding after weeks of rain, is not overly alarmed when he receives word that two local teens have gone missing along with their adult babysitter, but his concerns heighten when the sitter is found dead, and suspicions center on a nearby religious cult.

This mystery takes Inspector Wexford back to his days as a young policeman, and to the man he has long suspected of murder--serial murder. Inspector Wexford fans will be thrilled to meet the now-aging inspector in the robust early days of his career.

Inspector Wexford's investigation of the disappearance of two children from the village of Kingsmarkham becomes even more urgent when the body of a child is discovered at an abandoned country home.

Walking to the shops one day in London's Notting Hill, fifty-year-old Eugene Wren discovers an envelope on the street bulging with cash. A man plagued by a shameful addiction, Wren hatches a plan to find the money's rightful owner. Instead of going to the police, or taking the cash for himself, he prints a notice and posts it around Portobello Road. This ill-conceived act creates a chain of events that links Wren to other Londoners--people afflicted...