Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel
Reading, England, 1964. Theo, a lonely university lecturer, is approached by an American girl named Alice who wants to learn more about her father, a GI hanged for murder in Somerset during World War II. As a boy, Theo was a principal witness for the prosecution. He has been haunted by the arrest and conviction ever since. As the pair tries to uncover the facts, the horrors of the past take on a frightening immediacy when another murder is committed.