--The New York Times Book Review

Valerie Taylor has been missing since she was a sexy seventeen, more than two years ago. Inspector Morse is sure she's dead. But if she is, who forged the letter to her parents saying "I am alright so don't worry"? Never has a woman provided Morse with such a challenge, for each time the pieces of the jigsaw start falling into place, someone scatters them again. So Valerie remains as tantalizingly elusive as ever. Morse prefers a body--a body dead from unnatural causes. And very soon he gets

one. . . .

"You don't really know Morse until you've read him. . . . Viewers who have enjoyed British actor John Thaw as Morse in the PBS Mystery anthology series should welcome the deeper character development in Dexter's novels."

--Chicago Sun-Times

"Fascinating . . . Very satisfying."

--Book Sellers