Not only is Daniel sick of the politicking in academia, but his previous girlfriend, Aimee, committed suicide and so Oxford holds a lot of attendant bad memories. When Daniel and Miranda take a trip to the Lake District on a spur-of-the-moment vacation, Daniel takes them to the village of Brack, nestled in a hidden valley (Brackdale) where his family vacationed one summer before Daniel's father abandoned his family to get involved with another woman. That summer, though, holds fond memories for Daniel and so he is open to the idea when Miranda, spurred on by a "For Sale" sign on a run down cottage, says they should chuck it all and move there. They do indeed buy the cottage, Miranda takes on coordinating a makeover from top to bottom and Daniel tackles the long neglected garden. Daniel had actually befriended the young man who lived in the cottage that long-ago summer. Barrie Gilpin was slightly autistic and so kept at arm's length by most of the villagers, but the two boys had a wonderful time together exploring the valley. Daniel could not believe it possible, when many years later, Barrie was believed to have brutally murdered a visiting tourist and left her body on the Sacrifice Stone, which stands in silhouette as part of the surrounding mountain range. Barrie fell to his death that same night, accidentally or not, and so was never charged, nor was he ever cleared, and his mother lived with the villagers' assumptions about her son for the rest of her life.
Hannah has been put in charge of a new "cold case" team--she believes because of a murder case that went sideways, letting the man she is sure is guilty go free. The murder in Brackdale was one that Hannah helped Ben Kind investigate and so this is the case she chooses to start with. Given that Hannah worked with his dad after Ben had left, Daniel sees her as a potential source of information to help understand why Ben never stayed in touch after leaving. Moreover, Daniel sees historians as detectives of sorts, and he--apparently like his father--just does not think Barrie killed the woman. So Daniel and Hannah's paths will cross and recross as Daniel plays amateur sleuth, and Hannah reopens the case. Both find themselves somewhat intrigued by the other but unwilling to do anything to threaten their primary relationships--for now. Fair amount of local color, pretty complex and well-drawn characters, a twisty plot you cannot see coming. Not the best writer I've ever read, but competent, and I will move on to the next installment, The Cipher Garden.
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