Homicide detective sergeant Rory James has young First Nations archaeologist, Tahlia Lock, in tow when a Grampians gemstone fossicker strikes human bones. The find is so deep there is no way the remains could be non-archaeological ... except they are. The body turns out to be a woman from Sydney.

Tahlia insists she stay on the case nonetheless. From their testy exchanges, Rory learns Tahlia's real reason for hanging around is to have him re-investigate her brother's unsolved disappearance.

For Rory's colleagues, it is an open and shut case of the Sydney woman being murdered by her mining geologist husband. Rory thinks otherwise when he finds a link to the case of Tahlia's missing brother ... and is it possible that a frontier wars massacre is somehow connected?

As Rory digs deeper, the atrocity becomes more than ancient history and imperils Tahlia.

BONUS SHORT STORY. This edition includes the Detective Sergeant Rory James mini-mystery set in Bendigo - "Dying for a Coffee".