Peter Dickinson has won international acclaim for his stunning and uniquely inventive crime fiction. Now the author P. D. James calls "the true original" returns once again to prove that in his masterful hands, harrowing suspense can be found in the most unexpected places. Paralyzed by a debilitating illness, ninety-year-old Rachel Matson has been robbed of everything but her intellect. Yet when the indomitable widow finds herself confronted by a disturbing mystery -- one that begins when a nineteenth-century pistol that belonged to her husband pops up on Antiques Roadshow -- she is determined to solve it. From the confines of her bed, with only the photographs she took long ago to guide her, Rachel begins the arduous task of teasing the past from the shadows. But what finally emerges is a tale stretching back more than half a century, a tale bearing a sordid secret and an even more devastating truth...