In the dark days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main road and sweeps down to the sea. At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of mud and water smash through a house in its path. Everyone thinks the home is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. Perez soon becomes obsessed with tracing her identity and realizes he must find out who she was and how she died. "The stark Shetland landscape provides an atmospheric backdrop for Cleeves's complex, relatable characters, especially Perez, a kind man dealing with his own tragic past." - Publishers Weekly "A key feature of the best crime writing is a vivid sense of place, and Cleeves gives us Shetland in all its rugged, rain-swept splendour, an island where if everyone doesn’t know everyone else, it’s only a matter of time."  - Irish Times