Although this novel is based upon a genuine murder that took place in the churchyard of Bakewell Parish Church on the 12th September 1973 the characters and events that are described in this book are entirely fictional. They are a product of the author's imagination and any similarity to persons living is coincidental. To date the actual murder has never been solved. It may never be solved even though there were witnesses to the dreadful crime. They refused to testify because they feared for their lives.

Grace Manning, a wealthy middle-aged widow, mature sensible and clever at investing her finances, has a wide circle of friends and a happy settled life. She is aunt to Justine and Merci Carpentier whom she raised from the age of four when their parents were killed in a plane crash in 1990 while flying home to France. In 2011 when the twins come into their inheritance they decide to take a year out and explore the world. Six months later in February 2012 Grace Manning inexplicably commits suicide. Why? Justine and Merci are deeply traumatised by the news which they learn when they are finally traced by the police. They resolve to find out the reason why. Retired police sergeant Edward Decker's first wife was murdered in 1962. The crime was never solved. Fifty years later DNA evidence comes to light that finally points to the culprit. But is it too late for justice to be done? And how will the former police sergeant react to the news that all along one person knew the truth?

When the Chief Executive of the North Pennine Health Scheme is found dead, hanged by the rope of his stable bell, it is generally regarded as the suicide of a guilty man. One million pounds, missing from the health scheme's funds, was apparently withdrawn from the scheme's account by its Chief Executive...and then disappeared. But Police Sergeant Edward Decker thinks otherwise, Maxwell Bull, the late unlamented Chief Executive, was not the kind of man to kill himself. For a start he was much too arrogant and vain. The problem for Edward Decker is that Bull had so many enemies that it is difficult to know where to start. And the final solution is far removed from the one the policeman expected.