A chance meeting in the Dolphin Hotel in Plymouth leads John Tedesco to embark on his first cold case, that of a young teacher who suddenly disappeared in 1995 from the home she shared with her husband in the Peverell area of the city.

Exactly thirty years after the disappearance, human remains are discovered near a church on a wintry Dartmoor morning.

Rumours of sorcery, witchcraft and long-held grudges swirl among the drifting snow, but as Tedesco becomes aware of this gruesome discovery, he begins to detect patterns and coincidences which lead him to wonder if the skeleton might be that of Lainey, the teacher who went missing.

But will he convince a sceptical DCI Julia Tagg and her colleagues?

Can Tedesco help the police get to the truth before the wrong person, or people, are convicted?